Summer of Sundays
by little-mass-suicide
Summary: Shikamaru just got out of school and is looking forward to summer, but what he doesn't expect is his mom sending him to a boot camp two days later. [NejiShika]
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Which really sucks.

Warning: Some language (depends on my mood), butt loads of yaoi, small cases of yuri, some uncommon pairings, strange circumstances, and rebellious monkeys. You have been warned.

----------------------

Just five more minutes.

Shikamaru Nara was currently staring at the clock like what it was about to do would end his life. He wasn't the only person, either. Basically every other student in the classroom was staring intently at the digital clock mounted on the wall. The teacher had already given up on teaching and was currently sitting at his desk, grading some last minute extra-credit papers.

In three minutes, the day would end. It was not any old day, mind you. Today was the last day of school. The last day that Shikamaru was a stupid sophomore. Next year he was going to have to be a stupid junior, but he would deal with that later. He could have probably been halfway through college already, but skipping all those grades was way too troublesome.

_**Biiiiiiiiiiiinnnggg**_

After the bell rang, all hell broke loose as students abandoned their clock watching to jump up and run screaming and yelling out of the classroom. Papers were thrown, promises to visit were made, and Mr. Chosaku got dozens of rude faces made at him.

Once most of the students were out of the room, Shikamaru stood up, grabbed his single notebook and walked out of the room.

Thankfully, his sixth period class was the closest to the school's main entrance, so it wasn't that long before he was lazily walking across the campus, intent on walking to his house a few blocks away. Even though a bus for the high school came through his neighborhood, his mom still insisted on him walking. Troublesome lady.

"Shikamaru! Wait up!"

Turning his head, Shikamaru saw his friend Takashi running up to him. Oops. Looks like he forgot to wait for him again. They normally walked home together seeing as how Takashi's house is right down the street from Shikamaru's.

"So, what are you going to do when you get home?"

Shikamaru sighed and tilted his head back so he could admire the clouds through the thick layer of trees as he walked. "Sleep. That's it."

"Sounds like a good idea," Takashi replied with a laugh before smiling sheepishly. "I can't hang out with you at the skate park this weekend."

Shikamaru turned his head slightly to look at his friend. "Oh? Why not?"

Takashi moved in front of Shikamaru, walking backwards as he talked. "My girlfriend is coming down for a few days, so I am gonna be busy for a little while. Is that going to be okay?"

Shikamaru sighed. "How troublesome. We'll just hang out the next weekend. Don't need to make a big deal about it. Hey, this is my house."

Takashi turned and looked at the house that they had stopped in front of and realized that it was indeed Shikamaru's house. Which meant that they had already passed his house. "Crap! I'm going to be late! See ya next weekend, Shika!" Takashi yelled before he started running back the way they had come.

Shikamaru sighed again and walked up the driveway to their front door before opening it and stepping inside.

"Mom, I'm home!"

Frowning when he didn't receive an answer, Shikamaru closed the door behind him before dropping his notebook on the floor by his unused book bag and walked down the small hallway and into the kitchen.

On the fridge was a dry-erase board where the family scribbled nonsense about whatever. Right under the date of his cousin's baby shower which his dad had so conveniently (sp?) forgotten, was his mom's message.

**I went to the market. Be back around 5**

Remembering that his mom's car was still parked in the driveway, Shikamaru figured that she still must have been going along with the idea that cars were for lazy people. That means she walked to the market. Which just happens to be five miles away. Troublesome.

"Well, she won't be home for awhile. Might as well go to sleep."

Seeing as his dad didn't get home from work until nine, Shikamaru had a few hours to burn.

Sighing, Shikamaru walked back down the hall and up the flight of stairs that were nestled in between the coat closet and the doorway leading to the lounge room.

After walking down the hall at the top of the stairs, past his parent's room, the spare room, and the bathroom, he finally got to his bedroom door. Fishing the key out of his pocket, he pushed it into the keyhole and unlocked the door.

Ever since his mom insisted on snooping around his room, he had always kept it locked. Not that he had anything to hide; he just didn't like people going through his stuff without his consent.

After locking the door behind him, Shikamaru kicked off his shoes, shut the window and flopped down on his bed. He just laid there, sprawled all over his red sheets that his mom gave him (she said that the color red made people more energetic), staring up at his bland, white ceiling before drifting off into a dreamless, peaceful sleep.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

_Tap Tap Tap_

"Shikamaru?"

_Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap_

"Shika...?"

_Knock Knock_

"Shikamaru, it's time to get up."

_Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock_

"C'mon. I know you're awake. Get up."

_Thump_

"I'm not kidding. Get. Up. _Now_."

**Thump**

"I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL BREAK DOWN THIS DOOR IF YOU DO NOT GET YOUR LAZY ASS OUT OF BED!!"

Shikamaru blearily stared at his marvelous ceiling as he listened to his mom's annoyed screaming, not at all doubting that she would break down the door. Oh well. He never liked that door anyway. Too big.

"THAT'S _IT_!"

Shikamaru heard his mom's hurried footsteps thumping down the hall a bit before quickly coming back to stop again in front of his door. Also known as his last line of defense against the wrath known as his mother.

'Hm. This should be interesting.'

Shikamaru rolled over onto his side so that he could have a better view of the soon-to-be-demolished door. He sighed again, wondering what his mom had ran and grabbed out of her artillery closet _this_ time. The last time she had gotten into that closet was when their cat, Orangey, got stuck in the tree in the backyard. She had gotten out the chainsaw so she could cut down the tree. Of course, she got that brilliant idea after she walked by the ladder over five times.

_**CRUNCH**_

Hmm. Looks like she got the Viking War Hammer.

His mom was angrily staring in through the beach ball size hole in Shikamaru's door.

"Boy, you had better get up now. I have some important things to discuss with you."

"Huhh. So troublesome. Be down in five."

His mom nodded firmly before briskly walking off. "Damn straight."

Shikamaru slowly sat up and glanced at his clock. It was currently 8:47. Wow. He didn't realize he had slept that long. Two hours turned into five way too fast. Whatever. It's not like anything exciting happened when he was asleep.

He stood up and stretched for a bit before walking over to his deformed door, turning the knob and walking out. He didn't even bother locking the door behind him.

Taking his time, Shikamaru slowly walked down the hall and stairs and into the nearby lounge room where he took a seat on the small black couch. His mom walked in a few moments later, looking strangely pleased with herself.

Taking a seat in the recliner across from her son, she folded her hands in her lap and cleared her throat before initiating the conversation.

"So, Shikamaru. Looking forward to the summer?"

"Sure."

"Good. I hope you don't have any plans."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Well. I have decided to send you to camp," she answered cautiously.

"...Okay. What camp and for how long?"

"It is a boot camp and you will be there all summer."

Silence.

More silence.

Then...

"Ha ha. Very funny. If this is to get back at me for the door...-"

"I'm not kidding. You are going to this camp."

Shikamaru studied his mom's face, only to realize that she really, wasn't kidding about anything.

"What?!"

"I feel that it would be for the best if you went to this camp."

"But a boot camp?! Why a boot camp?! Why not...soccer?!"

It was at that moment that Shikamaru's dad came walking through the door with a soft yell of "I'm home."

Instead of being greeted by a small kiss on the cheek by his wife and some sort of grunt from Shikamaru, he was greeted with two relieved faces, but both for different reasons.

Shikamaru's because he thought his dad would rescue him and Mrs. Nara's because her husband would support her on this matter. [A/N: If Shikamaru's mom has an actual name, please tell me.

"Um. Hello. What's going on?"

Shikamaru took this chance and stood up before addressing his father. "She is trying to send me to a boot camp! Can you believe it?!"

Shikaku looked over to his wife with a questioning look on his face. "What is this about?"

She smiled before answering. "Well, I have found this great program for over the summer that I thought would be great to send Shikamaru too. I feel that he would learn many lessons there that would benefit him in school and life in general."

Shikaku realized that if he took part of this conversation, he was going to end up in deep shit no matter what side he took. Dammed if he did, dammed if he didn't. So, he decided to do the only other thing he could do in this situation. Run. And run he did. Before his wife decided to speak up.

"Shikaku Nara! You get your butt back here or you are sleeping on the couch for the next three months!"

Shikaku stopped for a few moments, just to try and figure out if it was really worth it, and just when he decided the couch had never looked better, his wife had snuck up behind him and punched him in the back of the head.

"Sit down, NOW! This is for your son's well being. If you don't take part in this, he is going to end up just like you! I don't want that!"

Shikaku looked at her incredulously. "I resent that."

"I don't care if you resent that! Sit down!"

"Fine, fine."

Shikaku reluctantly sat down next to Shikamaru before looking at his wife calmly. "So. What is this whole 'boot camp' thing?"

"Well, when Shikamaru was sleeping, I was looking through the mail and I found this pamphlet for a boot camp."

"I don't want to go to a boot camp. Doing endless amounts of sit-ups and drills all day does not sound like fun to me."

His mom looked at him like he had grown a second head. On his butt. "It's not that kind of boot camp. It's a boot camp for socially inept teens."

"Great. That makes it a lot better. What do you mean 'socially inept'? I have friends."

"Yes, Shika, you have, what, three friends? But that's not the point. The point is that I am sending you to this camp so you can get over your laziness. Don't you agree that this is a good decision, honey?"

Shikaku looked at them uneasily. "Well, maybe this would be a good idea."

"Dad!"

Mrs. Nara looked very happy. "Exactly. It is final. You will be going to this camp, Shika."

"Huhh. When do I leave?"

"In two days."

"What?! C'mon. You could have told me earlier."

"I just found out about it today. Even if you said no, I have already sent in the money, so they are already expecting you."

Shikaku looked at his son apologetically before getting up and walking out of the room.

"Okay, Shikamaru. You need to go pack. I have to drop you off at your high school tomorrow because of how long it takes to drive there. Oh, you are going to love this!"

"Right. Love it."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Two Days Later At The Camp

Shikamaru and a bunch of other teens were standing in front of the main building for the camp. Now, when you think of camps, most of them have the log cabins and are surrounded by huge trees. But that wasn't really the case here. The main building was at least two stories high and was nice and painted and most likely air-conditioned. A bit better than log cabins. When Shikamaru was standing in front of the building, he could see many different large buildings behind the main one as well. 'This doesn't seem like a boot camp. This looks like some sort of get-away place.'

Shikamaru's attention turned to the set of double doors on the building in front of him when one of them opened and a man stepped out. The man looked nice enough. Silver hair slanted at an odd angle. A casual black t-shirt and a pair of loose fitting jeans with a pair of black combat boots. What was strange to Shikamaru was the folded bandana covering his left eye and the mask covering the bottom half of his face. Yeah, this guy looked nice.

"Yo. You people must be the batch of kids. Welcome to Camp Tanoshimi. I hope we can all be friends. Now that that is thankfully over, follow me." Turning around, the man walked back into the main building, still talking as he walked. Shikamaru and the rest of the teens were forced to follow if they wanted to even catch a bit of what the man was saying. "I'm Kakashi Hatake, but call me Kakashi, not Mr. Hatake. Makes me feel old. Once we are all seated, I'll give the welcoming speech that I have been oh-so kindly forced to give, and then you guys can go figure out where you will be sleeping." Finishing the little talk he was giving, Kakashi continued leading the group of bored teens to a large room with a small platform at the front, the rest of the room mostly filled with those foldy seats you find in theaters. Walking onto the platform, Kakashi made a gesture with his hand, motioning for everyone to take a seat.

Shikamaru made sure to get a seat in the back, away from all the other teens. If his mom sent him there to get rid of his lazy-ness, then he was going to become even lazier, just to spite her. Not that doing it would be hard.

"Just to get it out of the way, no one will be picking room mates. That has already been decided and what not."

Kakashi was cut off as a skinny blond girl raised her hand and started talking. "Where are our bags?"

Apparently, this thought had been on the mind of another girl, pink hair this time, who also spoke up. "Yeah! I want my stuff. It has all my make-up in it!" Shikamaru could already tell these two would be troublesome in the future.

Kakashi sighed before answering the girls' question. "All of your luggage has been taken the your rooms."

The pink haired girl spoke up again. "But I thought you said we would figure out where we were sleeping after you finished the stupid speech?"

"No. I said that _you_ would figure out where you were sleeping. _I_ already know where you are sleeping. I was the one who decided who slept where. Get it?"

The two girls nodded their heads before settling down in their seats.

Kakashi had the decency to look a little frustrated as he continued to talk.

"Okay. Welcoming speech. Right," Taking a deep breath, Kakashi continued. "_**WELCOME!**_"

Everyone, including Shikamaru, jumped a bit in their seats as Kakashi bellowed his 'Welcoming Speech'. Obviously thinking that the single word was sufficient enough, Kakashi briskly walked off the platform. He got about halfway to the door before something came running and tackled him.

"FOOLISH KAKASHI! AS YOUTHFUL AS THAT WORD WAS, YOU MUST GIVE THE WHOLE SPEECH!"

That 'something' had been another man, though this time he looked slightly stranger than Kakashi. Clad in an atrocious green spandex jumpsuit with bright orange leg warmers, the guy was quite large and had a lot of muscles, so Shikamaru didn't doubt that Kakashi was in pain right now. Seeing as how the green man still hadn't released him form the tackle/bear hug.

"G-Gai...you...are killing...me...air...please..?"

Gai looked down and found that he was indeed crushing Kakashi's lungs, and immediately let go and stepping back.

"Sorry about that, Kakashi. Though I can't help but say you should have seen that coming."

Kakashi coughed and walked back to the platform before addressing the teens.

"Maybe I should try that again. Welcome to Camp Tanoshimi. This is Gai-sensei, one of the instructors that work here, among others. The other staff members you will meet later."

Kakashi looked like he was about to say something else, but Gai roughly shoved him aside and took over the speech. Not that Kakashi cared.

"Oh youthful students! I am sure that you will absolutely LOVE it here! If I love it, you will love it. LET THE FLAME OF YOUTH BURN INSIDE YOU!! Thank you."

And with that, he stepped of the stage and sat down in one of the seats in the front row.

Shikamaru groaned. If all the teachers here were like that, he was going to kill himself.

Kakashi reluctantly walked back over to the center of the platform. "As I was going to say, you will meet the other staff members later. This camp has many different programs that you should probably take advantage of. Some of which would be the gym, the arcade, lounge room, pool, and garden, mini theatre, among other things. We will normally have one field trip a week, if not, one every two weeks. Along with field trips, there will be two one-hour classes that everyone will take a day. One in the morning and the second in the afternoon that are required. Not everyone will be taking the same class, each person will take the class that we feel will best help them get over whatever reason they were sent here for. Hm. I think that is it. So why don't you all get up and I will lead you to your respective dorm buildings."

As Kakashi walked down the isle, Shikamaru and the rest of the teens got up and followed him out of the room. A lot of the other people looked a bit happier after hearing about all the benefits that came along with being here. Shikamaru, on the other hand, only looked forward to getting some sleep and maybe spending some time in the lounge room or garden. 'I don't get what everyone else is getting excited about.'

Taking the time to look at the other people around him, Shikamaru noted that he wasn't the only person who _didn't_ look excited about this thing. The guy looked about a year older than himself, and a bit stuck-upish, too. He had long black hair, tied off a few inches from the bottom with a folded white bandana folded across his forehead. His eyes were a creamy white color and he had a smooth, angular face. Nice enough except for the fact that he scowled at anything and everything. So troublesome.

But not as troublesome as the two girls who had spoken up about their bags during Kakashi's welcoming speech. They were huddled together and talking quietly and quickly. Shikamaru noted that they would repetitively look to their right at a dark haired boy before giggling. When said teen looked over at them, they squealed loudly and their chattering continued.

The raven looked slightly peeved, but it was almost like he was used to it. He just stuffed his hands into his pockets and kept on walking, ignoring the blonde boy who was rapidly talking to the raven as if he was actually listening. Great, so we got another emo dude and a blonde hair hyperactive weirdo.

Taking another look around him, Shikamaru noted that there was also a shy looking girl with purple hair and was wearing a huge parka, there was a brown haired boy who looked almost as hyper as the Blondie over there, but he had two red triangles going down his cheeks. A little to Shikamaru's left was a tall, boy with spiky black hair and a ridiculously large white coat on. The black sunglasses didn't help with making the teen look friendly. More like a creepy guy you would find in a dark ally way.

Taking a glance behind him, Shikamaru saw that there was only one person behind him. A redhead that glared harshly at him when he saw Shikamaru looking back at him. Hm. Someone didn't take their happy pills today.

Walking a little to his right was yet another black haired boy. He looked a little like the one up ahead that was being bugged by the Blondie, but this one's hair was shorter. Shikamaru could tell that this was a bit different, and the shirt the guy was wearing really contributed to the thought.

All the way at the front by Gai was a boy who looked exactly like the older man. Same haircut, same clothes, and the same exuberance. He was _sure_ to be a load of fun. Walking beside the Gai look-alike was a girl who looked a little more normal than the people she was walking with. Her hair was tied up in twin buns on the top of her head, and she seemed like a pretty nice person. 'Well, she has to be in order to be able to put up with those two.'

And lastly, walking a few feet away from Shikamaru was a large teen who seemed to be eating a bag of potato chips, just minding his own business. When he looked over and saw Shikamaru looking at him, he smiled and waved before walking over.

"Hey. I'm Chouji. Who're you?"

Shikamaru sighed before answering. "Shikamaru Nara. This place is so troublesome. I'd rather be at home sleeping."

Chouji nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Though I would rather be eating my chips and watching the Cooking Channel."

Everyone stopped as Kakashi and Gai stood in front of two almost identical buildings. One had a sign over the door saying Liore Hall; the other building had a sign saying Crowe Hall.

"Okay. The Liore Hall is the boy's dorm, and the Crowe is the girl's. Once you get inside, your dorm mother, or father, will show you to your respective rooms and explain the ground rules. You will have 45 minutes to unpack and get to know each other before your dorm mother will show you guys to the Food Hall so you guys can have dinner. Well, off you go."

Kakashi and Gai walked off towards the main building, leaving the teens to figure out what to do themselves. The guys all migrated into the Liore Hall and the four girls went into the Crowe Hall. Shikamaru and Chouji walked into their dorm building together and stopped with the rest of the group inside of the building. Looking around the room, Shikamaru noticed that there was a man sitting at a desk in the far right corner of the room. There was one staircase leading up to what Shikamaru assumed to be the dorm rooms to his left and five or six couches to his right.

The man sitting at the desk stood up as he heard the group of teenagers walked into the room and hurried over to stand in front of them.

"Ah. Hello. I'm Iruka Umino and I am your dorm mother. Or father. Just call me Iruka, okay. Anyway. If you would please follow me, I will show you to your rooms."

With a smile, Iruka beckoned the group to follow him as he walked up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a very long hallway with multiple doors on wither side. Iruka turned to them and pulled a folded piece of paper from his pant pocket. Unfolding it, he skimmed over the contents before looking up at the group.

"Okay. I need to make sure everyone is here and then I will tell you who is bunking with whom. Okay. First up is... Shino Aburame."

The strange boy with the rather large coat on raised his hand. "I'm here."

Iruka smiled. "Okay. You will be in room 3. Okay. Chouji Akimichi?"

Chouji also raised his hand, though he did not reply because he was chewing a mouthful of potato chips.

Iruka frowned at the bag of chips. "Okay. But you aren't allowed to have any food in my dorm room past 10 pm. You are going to be in room 7 with me. There aren't an even amount of boys, and the instructors also use these dorm rooms. Okay. Next is Neji Hyuuga?"

The stuck-up looking raven with the long hair and creepy eyes raised his hand and quietly answered. "Here."

"M'kay. You are going to be in room 9. Since you are the odd one out, you get the room to yourself. Let's see. Kiba Inuzuka."

The teen with the shaggy brown hair and the red triangle tattoos raised his hand and yelled, "Here!"

Iruka grinned at his enthusiasm. "Good! You are going to be in room 3 with Shino. Okay, next is Shikamaru Nara?"

Shikamaru sighed and lazily raised his hand. "Here."

"Okay. You will be in room 1. Next, Gaara Sabaku."

The emo redhead raised his hand but didn't say anything.

Iruka's smile didn't falter as he chirped out the room number. "Okay, room 4. Oops! Seems like I overlooked someone. A Rock Lee?"

The Gai look-alike instantly raised his hand. "Here, sir!"

Iruka looked at him apologetically. "Sorry about that, Lee. You will be in room... 4. With Gaara. Next is Sasuke Uchiha? Oh! Are you Itachi's little brother?"

Sasuke flinched when Itachi was mentioned. "Yes, he is my brother."

Iruka grinned and continued. "Oh, that's great. I'm sure he will love to know that you came this year. You will be in room 2. Next is Naruto Uzumaki."

The hyper blond raised both of his hands and jumped around. "I'm here, Iruka!"

Iruka smiled at Naruto's antics. "Yes, I see you Naruto. You will be in room 1 with Shikamaru. And last but not least, Sai. Do you have a last name, Sai?"

The strange, raven haired teen looked up at Iruka as if seeing him for the first time. "Yes, I do. I just don't like it so I didn't tell you. What room am I in?"

Iruka's smile faltered a second before returning full force. "Okay, you are in room 2 with Sasuke. Now that everyone knows which room they are in and whom they are rooming with, you can go to your rooms and unpack your stuff. You have about 45 minutes as Kakashi probably told you until I take you guys down to dinner."

As Iruka went back downstairs, Shikamaru and the rest of the guys went into their respective dorms.

As soon as he went into his room, he instantly liked it. It was at least three times larger than his room back home. There was a queen-sized bed in the right corner of the room and one in the left corner, both had light blue and white sheets on. There was a desk a few feet away from each bed and a small dresser at the foot of each bed as well. A mirror was hung above each dresser and a small laptop was sitting on each desk. In between the desks was a large window and a few feet away from the door Shikamaru was standing in was another door that led to a bathroom. A TV was on another desk in the corner to the right with two small lounge chairs in front of it. A small refrigerator was nestled by the TV stand. Oh yes. He could really get used to this.

As he was standing in the doorway admiring his new room, Shikamaru was suddenly pushed aside as his roommate decided that he also wanted to see the room.

"Jeez. Do ya think you could actually step inside the room instead of just standing in the doorway?"

Shikamaru's mood was suddenly knocked down a few notches as he remembered who he was actually rooming with. Looking over to the bed on the left, he realized that the luggage on the floor by the bed was his, and the bags on the opposite side of the room were Naruto's. That is, until Naruto decided he wanted the bed on the left and picked up his bags and dumped them on the bed before kicking Shikamaru's over to the bed on the right.

"Oh. How nice. Think you could have asked, Naruto?"

Naruto looked up at him and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't realize it mattered which bed you got. If you really want this bed, I'll move my stuff."

Shikamaru sighed and walked over to the bed on the right, picking up his abused bags and dropping them on the bed before yanking them open. "No, no. It's too troublesome to switch back. Just tell me if you suddenly decide to trade again in the middle of the night."

Naruto nodded before turning to his own bags. Instead of taking them out and neatly putting them in the dresser like Shikamaru was doing, he was just grabbing handfuls of clothing and whatnot and just shoving them into the open drawers. Not even bothering to close them when they were full.

Shikamaru looked distastefully at the messy dresser before shutting his once all of his belongings were where he wanted them. Glancing at the digital clock on the desk, he realized that they still had about 20 minutes before they had to meet Iruka downstairs.

"We still have at least 20 minutes before we have to leave. What do you want to do, Naruto?"

Naruto looked up at him from the chair he had plopped down into. "Hmm... Oh! I know! We could play a game!"

Shikamaru sighed. "No. Games are too troublesome. Why don't we just sit down, and converse."

Naruto looked at him questioningly. "Converse?"

"Talk."

"Oh! Okay. I can talk. What do you want to talk about?"

Shikamaru sighed again. This kid had too much energy for his own good. "Anything. What do you like?"

Naruto's face brightened. "Ramen! I really, really love ramen! Do you like ramen?"

"Kind of. I like to sleep. A lot."

"Hmm. That sounds like... fun. Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No. Love is troublesome."

"No it's not! I love ramen and ramen isn't troublesome."

Shikamaru looked at him incredulously. "Ramen isn't troublesome, but you are. C'mon. I don't care what time it is, I am going downstairs." At this, Shikamaru got up and left the room.

Naruto hurriedly ran after him, barely remembering to shut the door as he left.

"Aren't you happy that you came here? I'm happy. I think that I will have a bunch of fun. I'm here because my foster dad, Iruka, is here. Isn't that cool. Well, I'm also here because people say that I am really hyper so I came here to try and calm down a bit. Why are you here?"

The scary thing is, he said that all in one breath. Just _hearing_ him made Shikamaru tired. Or even more tired than he was before. "I'm here because my mom got tired of my laziness."

Reaching the bottom of the staircase, he took a turn and saw Iruka sitting at the deck in the corner.

"Hey, Iruka. We got bored so we came down here."

Iruka looked up from the paper work he was trying to finish. "Oh, hey Shikamaru, Naruto. You two getting along good?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah! We are getting along just fine! We already finished unpacking and stuff. Is there anything we could do to help?"

Iruka looked down at the papers before glancing at the clock. "Well, it's almost time for me to bring you guys to dinner. I need to finish filling out this form, so could you two go back upstairs and get the others? I would really appreciate it. Oh. And get the other teachers, too. Just knock on all the doors and tell them to come downstairs."

Naruto nodded again before dragging Shikamaru back upstairs and knocking loudly on the first door they came to, which happened to be door number two. "C'mon, guys! Iruka told us to come get-"

Naruto was abruptly cut off as the door was suddenly yanked open by an angry Sasuke. "Would you _stop?"_

Naruto frowned before pushing his way into the room. "Jeez, Sasuke. Don't have to get all pissy about it. Iruka told me and Shika here to come up and get you guys 'cause it was almost dinner."

In the middle of Naruto's explanation, Sai walked out of the bathroom and sat down on the bed closest to the bathroom door. Shikamaru supposed that it was his. Smirking, Sai turned to look at Naruto before adding in his two-cents.

"Hey, dick-less wonder. What's going on?"

Naruto's attention immediately turned from Sasuke to Sai. "Hey! Who are you calling dick-less. With the crap you're wearing, you would probably get dragged into an ally way and get raped by some dude 'cause he thought you were a girl. At least I _look_ like a guy."

"Oh. So are you admitting that you have a small dick?"

Sasuke sighed and walked out the door, grabbing hold of Shikamaru's arm and pulling him with him. "C'mon. From what I can tell, they are going to be at it for the next few minutes. You get room 3 and I'll get number 4."

Shikamaru sighed. He couldn't help but agree with Sasuke about Naruto. Though, if he were given the chance, Naruto probably would have stayed there to argue with Sai for the rest of the day. "Sure, whatever."

Shikamaru waked down the hall to room 4 and knocked on the door twice. Only a few seconds after he knocked on it was it opened quickly as Lee stuck his head out into the hall to see who knocked. "Oh, hello! You are Shikamaru, yes?"

Shikamaru nodded his head slowly. "Yeah. Iruka wanted me to come and tell everyone that they needed to come downstairs. It's almost time for him to take us to dinner."

Lee's face brightened as he heard the news. "Okay. I'll come out, just let me go get Gaara-san."

Shikamaru sighed again as Lee ran back inside his room, calling Gaara's name the whole time. Shikamaru walked over to Sasuke who was standing in the hall with Kiba and Shino, waiting for Shikamaru to finish up. "Lee is getting Gaara. What about the other doors?"

Sasuke looked around, then back to Shikamaru. "I already tried room 5 and 8, but no one is in there. You get room 7 and 9. I'll get room 6 and wait for Lee and Gaara."

Shikamaru frowned when he heard he had to get more people, but he walked down the hall until he came to the door with the number 7 on it. Seeing as there were only 10 rooms, the hall should have been rather short, but sense the rooms were huge, the doors were farther apart making it so Shikamaru had to walk farther then he normally would have had to. And, Shikamaru being Shikamaru didn't like this. "Why do they have to make the hall so long? I have to walk forever just to be able to get past three doors. If this is part of trying to get rid of my lazyness, it really isn't going to help."

Shikamaru knocked a few times on the door, waiting for someone to open it. As soon as he was about to walk away and go to the other room, Chouji opened the door and peered out into the hall. "Oh! Shikamaru. What's up?"

Shikamaru turned back to look at Chouji before sighing and walking back. "Iruka told me to come and get you guys. It's almost dinner."

Chouji's face brightened as he heard the word dinner. Hurrying out into the hall, he just the door behind him before walking over to where Sasuke and the others were trying to help Lee get a very stubborn Gaara out of the dorm room and into the hall with the rest of them.

Shikamaru walked to the very end of the hall and knocked on door 9. Seconds after he knocked it was opened quickly as Neji came to see who was trying to break down his door. "Would you stop? I would like to finish unpacking in peace, not with someone trying to break into my room."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out how Neji got the idea that Shikamaru was trying to break into his room when he only knocked twice. "How troublesome. Iruka wanted me to come and get you. It's almost time to go to dinner."

Neji scowled and reluctantly stepped outside, shutting the door quickly so Shikamaru couldn't see anything inside. The both walked down to the group of boys ant the end of the hall, Shikamaru noticing that they managed to get Gaara out of the room and that he was now leaning against the wall and scowling at anyone who looked at him for more than five seconds.

Joining the rest of the mob, Shikamaru saw that Naruto and Sai had taken their argument outside. Walking over to Sasuke, he checked to make sure that they had knocked on all the doors before walking down the stairs, everyone else walking behind him.

Stopping in front of Iruka's desk, he cleared his throat to get his attention, suppressed that he hadn't heard the racket the rest of the guys were making.

"We got everyone down here. There weren't any other teachers up there, though."

Iruka frowned when he heard that no other adults were on the building, but he stood up anyway and yelled to get everyone's attention. Once he had it, he started talking. "Okay. We still have about five minutes before I have to take you guys to dinner, so let me explain the rules. I understand that you guys like to visit each other, but everyone has to be in their own rooms at 11. Kakashi and I will be coming around and checking to make sure. You can have food in the rooms, but try to keep it clean. There is a cleaning closet at the end of the hall with a vacuum cleaner and a few other supplies that you may use. Lights are off at 12. You may stay up later if you want, but try to be quiet; other people are most likely trying to sleep. No boys are allowed in the girls' dorm, and no girls in here. I do believe that is it, but if I think of any other rules I will tell you. Okay, follow me."

With that, Iruka walked out of the building, not even checking to make sure the boys were following him, as he was sure they were hungry.

It only took a few minutes to get to the food hall, seeing as how it was only two buildings down.

It was a huge white building, and above the door was a large sign that said Rosemary Hall. There were large windows all the way around the building, and you could see large tables placed neatly around the large room.

Iruka opened the door and held it open for the guys to walk in. "Okay. It doesn't matter where you sit. Get in line in the back; the cooks there will serve you. Today I believe it is barbeque pork, rice, and then some cake for dessert. Enjoy."

Chouji was the first in line, followed by everyone else. Shikamaru was the last in line seeing as how he was extremely lazy. That and he really didn't like pork.

Once everyone had gotten their food, they chose the largest table available that was by a window and sat down and started eating. Chouji sat down next to Shikamaru and immediately wanted to know why he had only wanted rice. When Shikamaru told him that he didn't like pork, Chouji nearly had a heart attack.

"B-But why?! Why don't you like pork?! It is the best meat in the world! Especially barbeque pork!"

"I just don't like it. Too fatty."

"But that's one of the things that makes it taste good!"

"And that is why I don't like it."

In the middle of their conversation, the small group of girls walked into the dining room, led by their house mom, Kurenai.

Kiba immediately perked up when he saw Hinata. "Hey, Shino. Do you think she would go out with me? I don't know, but she seems really shy. What if she just passes out when I walk up to her?"

Naruto looked up from his rice. "Why? Because of your nonexistent macho-ness?"

Kiba glared at him and chucked a grain of rice at Naruto. And Naruto, being Naruto, picked the grain of rice up off the table and ate it before glaring at Kiba. "Don't waste food."

"Dude! It was a grain of rice!"

"So what?"

Shikamaru sighed as Naruto started up another argument and turned back to his almost empty plate. Looking to Chouji, he shoved his plate over before sighing again. "Hey, I'm not hungry. You want it?"

Chouji smiled before finishing up the rest of Shikamaru's rice in a few bites. Propping his head up on his hand, Shikamaru lazily looked around the table at everyone else who was still eating. Naruto was _still_ arguing with Kiba about wasting food. Chouji was getting seconds. Or thirds. Sasuke was listening in on Naruto and Kiba's argument, shaking his head at the pair's pointless conversation. Sai was too busy picking at his pork and staring at Naruto to realize that Lee was spouting of information about different healthy meals that he could eat. Gaara was sitting by Lee and apparently hadn't even touched his food and was just leaning back in his chair and glaring at the food. Guess he doesn't like pork either. Shino was sitting by Kiba and quietly commenting about how he just needed to let it go or he would be there with Naruto forever. At least he was being smart about it.

Iruka came bustling back into the building, not that anyone had even realized that he was gone. "Okay. Is everyone done eating?"

Getting multiple affirmative answers and noises, everyone got up to leave the building and go back to the dorms.

Shikamaru walked up to Iruka and tapped him on the shoulder. "Um. Can you show me where the bathroom is? I know where the dorm building is so I can just go back there when I am done."

"Sure. It's over there, to the left of where you guy's lined up to get your food. Don't take too long though. I really don't want to get into trouble."

"Thanks."

With that, Shikamaru walked over to where Iruka had pointed and easily found the sign for the restrooms. Walking into the men's bathroom, Shikamaru walked over to the sink and turned on the hot water, vaguely noticing that there wasn't a mirror above the sinks like usual, but behind him on the wall next to the urinals. Weird. He didn't need to use the bathroom; it's just that his mom is a neat freak so she made him wash his hands after every meal. And if he didn't, would decide to play soccer, and his head was the soccer ball. Even though she wasn't there at that exact moment, he knew she would find out somehow.

When Shikamaru walked over to the paper towel dispenser, he was suddenly grabbed from behind and slammed into the wall by the door. Before he could retaliate from the unexpected assault, a warm mouth quickly covered his, cutting off his yell.

Shikamaru's eyes widened when a pair of hands grabbed his wrists and spred them out to his side, immobilizing Shikamaru temporarily while a soft, wet tongue swiped across his bottom lip before forcefully pushing past and into his mouth. In his stuggle to figure out what was going on, Shikamaru failed to notice who was actually kissing him.

Shikamaru's eyes slowly slid shut as the intruding muscle soothingly stroked his own, and before he knew it, Shikamaru was shyly kissing back. Touching the other's tongue with his own, the stranger hummed in delight and tried coaxing Shikamaru's tongue into his own mouth.

Shikamaru moaned quietly before tentativly running his tongue over the other's teeth before more thoroughly exploring the other's hot, wet cavern.

After a minute or so of raping each other's mouths, the stranger slowly pulled back, releasing Shikamaru's arms and allowing him mobility.

Shikamaru hazily opened his eyes, still trying to process what had just happend. When his eyes gained some sort of focus, Shikamaru slowly looked over to the person who had just ravashed him against the wall, immediatly gasping when he saw who it was.

"N-Neji?!"

----------------------

**A/N:** Hello people. I have finally finished the first chapter of this story, and I hope you like it. Please review, I really kinda want to know what people think about this story. I just thought that the concept of Shikamaru going to a boot camp was too funny to let pass. I am so happy because my mom and dad got the computer running, and even though we don't have internet sniff I can still type up my stories and save them to a disk and post them on my friends computer. So I am really excited now that I can write my stories more often. Anywho, please leave a review if ya can. Byes! -LMS


	2. Chapter 2

**Summer of Sundays**

Chapter 2

**Warnings**: Includes massive stupidity, amazing nudeness, random crap, youthful bullshit, perverseness, and the ever present yaoi.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto. At all.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"N-Neji?!"

The dark haired took a step back away from Shikamaru. Running the back of his hand across his mouth, he smirked arrogantly at the other teen. "Yes?"

Shikamaru uncharacteristically sputtered over his words before getting his thoughts straight. "You know what I mean!"

Neji added a raised eyebrow to his expression. "Do I?"

The distressed teen pushed himself off the wall, seeing as how he wasn't being forcibly pinned against it anymore, and jabbed a finger at Neji. "Why the _hell_ did you oh-so-kindly shove me against a wall and kiss me; in a disgusting bathroom no less?" On the inside, Shikamaru was yelling at himself to get himself under control. The last time he had gotten this worked up about something was about a year and a half ago when his dad had run over Shikamaru's foot in his SUV, and even then it took awhile for him to register.

Neji's smile widened a fraction, and he took a small step closer to Shikamaru, leaning his face in to answer. "Don't act like you don't know. I saw the way you looked at me – watched me whenever I moved. It finally registered after you tried so hard to get into my bedroom before dinner. Then, with the looks you kept sending me during dinner, I confirmed my suspicion. You, my friend, want me."

After Neji finished murmuring his status report, he leaned back a few inches. Probably so he could look at Shikamaru's face as the deduction soaked in.

Shikamaru on the other hand was still in the soaking in process. 'So he thinks… that I _want_ him? Jesus Christ, he's an idiot.'

"You troublesome fool."

Neji looked like he had been expecting that sort of response. "Call me what you want. Deny it all you want. You can't hide from the truth. We were fated to meet, Shikamaru Nara."

With that, Neji spun on his heel, flung his hair over his shoulder, and sauntered out of the bathroom.

Shikamaru's gaze followed him out of the room. After a few moments of greatly appreciated silence, the frazzled cloud lover turned and walked over to the sink and examined his face in the somewhat clean mirror.

Staring at himself, he debated whether or not the look of disgust was on his face because he was truly disgusted, or because he desperately trying to create the illusion of disgust for his own sake.

Well, it didn't matter if he was trying to create an illusion or not, because Neji obviously didn't believe it.

Looking at himself more closely, Shikamaru undid his ponytail, ran his fingers through his hair to catch the loose strands, and secured the spiky bunch with his hair tie again. Noticing that there was actually a fair amount of spit smeared all over his still red lips and the surrounding area, he used the cuff of his sleeve to dry his face off. [A/N: I _hate_ it when that happens. *Glares at girlfriend*]

Splashing water on his face and hastily drying off with the hem of his shirt, Shikamaru decided that he was presentable and walked out of the bathroom and back into the deserted dining area.

Walking out of the entrance of which they had come in though, Shikamaru saw the group standing scattered around Iruka, who was pointing off in different directions and apparently talking about whatever he had pointed at.

As Iruka caught sight of Shikamaru lazily walking towards the group, he stopped chattering about whatever and called out to the late teen. "Shikamaru! Neji informed me that you had been having some troubles in the restroom. Are you sick?"

Among the other worried, confused, and indifferent stares, Shikamaru noticed that Neji had a small, self satisfied smirk on his face. Frowning slightly, Shikamaru sighed and answered the question. "Yeah. I'm fine. The food must have upset my stomach a bit."

Iruka's mood seemed to lighten a bit when he heard the teen was alright. "Okay, as I was saying, as we are facing the main building, to our left is where we just came from, the cafeteria. Behind that is of course the boy's dorm. Attached behind the main building is the activities center, housing the arcade and other such establishments. If you turn a bit to your right, you can spot the barn. You can ask me about the barn and our other features tomorrow."

Naruto shot his hand in that air, spewing out his question before Iruka even registered the flailing limb. "Are there any animals in the barn?"

Instead of letting Iruka answer, Kiba decided to do the honors. "No shit, dipstick. Did you even read the pamphlet?"

Before Naruto got the chance to shoot his surely brilliant comeback at Kiba, Iruka interjected. "Knock it off or else you guys will be scrubbing floors until your hands bleed, and then you can help Gai in his dream of creating a better jumpsuit. How does that sound?"

They shut up.

"Okay. Back on track. A little ways behind the main building and the activity center is the gym and attached to that is the pool room with two full sized pools. To the left of the gym are two basketball courts and to the right of the gym is the baseball field. Behind the gym are the tennis courts and a little behind the boys' dorms are the football field and the track."

At this statement, Iruka received many cheers and excited yells. Chouji asked if a football was made out of pig skin and if so, was it edible. Everyone ignored him.

"Ok_ay_! And last but not least, in the far right corner of our property is the three square acre garden. Now that I am done; it is already 8:00. Let's head back to the dorms, alright?"

Getting mumbled agreements, Iruka lead the way to the dorm. Pushing the door open and holding it open for the boys, everyone filed past Iruka and up the stairs to the bedroom hallway.Right before everyone could mosey on off to their rooms, Iruka called them back for a quick announcement. "Sorry guys, but I have to assign chores. Sasuke, Sai, and Naruto. You three will have gym clean up. Chouji and Kiba, you two have laundry. Lee, you have vacuuming. Shino and Gaara have bathrooms, while that leaves Shikamaru and Neji with Kitchen duty."

Naruto shrieked and jumped up to Iruka, grabbing onto the man's arms and shaking him violently. "We have chores here?! How often do we have to do them?!"

After masterfully escaping the wrath known as Naruto, Iruka cleared his throat and smiled slightly. "Well, gym clean-up is up to Gai, so you would have to ask him. Laundry is done once at the end of the week and whenever it needs to be done otherwise. If you boys have specific clothes you would like to wear, then it is up to yourselves to get it done. Vacuuming is to be done twice a week a well, once near the beginning and a second time near the end of the week. Kitchen duty is to be taken care of nightly. Everyone must do their chores on their own time."

Naruto, stepping away from Iruka, nodded his head and mumbled out an agreement, deeming the task not too hard. After Lee interjected how lucky he was to be able to consult Gai-sensei, Sasuke decided to speak up. "Is there any more you would like to tell us, Iruka? I'd like to sleep."

"Sasuke, you wimp. It's not even nine."

"Shut up, dead last."

Iruka chuckled nervously and raised his hands up in front of himself. "Now, now, boys. No need for arguing, eh? Um, if you guys want a sleepover, you need to notify me or one of the teachers in the dorm. And no more than four people per room. Speaking of teachers, I must go and take care of something. Good night boys. Lights out at eleven."

Listening absentmindedly to a small handful of teens complaining about having a curfew in general, Shikamaru made his way down the hall, only to feel a hand grope his ass. Glaring as he watched Neji make his way down the hallway to the door to his room, Shikamaru also tried to get into his room, but was roughly pushed aside by an impatient Naruto.

"You are _way_ too slow, Shikamaru."

Deciding to shift his glare to his blonde roommate, Shikamaru walked into his and Naruto's room, shutting and locking the door behind him. Walking over to his bed, Shikamaru grabbed the hem of his shirt and tugged it off over his head, throwing the piece of clothing onto the clean, pristine sheets.

"So Shikamaru, what did you think of everyone? A few of 'em were pretty cool, and the others just pissed me off. Like that Sasuke guy. He is such a bastard. Just cause his brother works here, he thinks he owns the place. What did you think of him?"

Naruto took a second out of his rambling to blink owlishly at Shikamaru, waiting expectantly for his answer. Shikamaru on the other hand, was thinking about how large the blonde's lungs must be, seeing as how the kid had said that the whole paragraph in one go, and was still holding his breath.

"Um. He is troublesome." Yeah. He decided to go with the usual. It seemed to please the blonde though.

"Hm. Yeah. Troublesome works. Don't really hear that word often. Anyway, I don't like Sasuke. That Gaara figure seems a little off the hook, but he seems to be an okay guy. Just quiet… and menacing. Shino creeps me out… and so does Lee." In between these little outbursts of opinionated insults and comments, Naruto was dumping his bag out onto his bed and sorting through it, trying to find his pair of pajamas. "Kiba is cool. He is a little weird though, Chouji was nice, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Definitely not troublesome."

"Heh, yeah. And that Neji character. His ego is _huge_. Did you notice he was looking at you funny?" Seeing as how he couldn't locate his pajamas amongst the miscellaneous clothing items and objects of the sharp and pointy variety, Naruto took this moment to strip down to his orange and black checkered boxers and hop onto his bed.

Shikamaru snorted softly. "Yeah. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed it. Troublesome, huh?"

"Yeah. Maybe he's out for your blood or something." Naruto chuckled at the idea, and then a few seconds later, his smiled turned into an irritated frown. "And that Sai creep! Ugh, I _hate_ that guy. More than Sasuke! That weirdo has an obsession with small penis jokes, and the guy always has this annoying fake smile on his face. It just makes me want to pound his-"

"Ass?"

Naruto shrieked and flew off his bed, his head whipping around furiously trying to locate where the voice had come from. Seeing that in his desperate head flailing Naruto wasn't really seeing much of anything, Shikamaru cleared his voice and pointed to the door where a dark haired teen leaned calmly against the frame.

Naruto's eyes landed on Sai's curious look, and as soon as Naruto recognized who it was who had taunted him, Shikamaru knew that tonight wasn't going to be the peaceful night that he had been hoping for.

"What are you doing in here?! And why are you talking about pounding ass?!"

Sai furrowed his brow, confused at Naruto's angry remarks. All he had done was ask a question. Due to Naruto's attitude towards Sasuke throughout the day, Sai was under the impression that Naruto did want to pound Sasuke's ass.

"I was merely stopping by to say goodnight, when I overheard you. I thought that you disliked Sasuke?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to adopt a confused look. He wasn't talking about Sasuke, he was talking about Sai. Ohhhh! Sai thought he had been talking about Sasuke! Well, he might as well go along with it.

"Yeah. Heh. I definitely don't like that guy. Pansy bitch."

Sai's face took an understanding expression. "Ah. Okay. I am no longer confused. So you would like to pound his ass?"

Shikamaru's face twitched at the repeated expression. Maybe the kid didn't know English?

Naruto nodded his head and jumped back up on his bed. "Yeah. That would be awesome! I would definitely beat him. Maybe he would even beg for mercy! Heh he. That would show him whose boss."

Sai smiled again, nodding his head in agreement. "Yes, that would most likely work. Please excuse me for a moment. I have something I need to take care off."

Shikamaru sighed and laid down on his bed, rolling over to face the wall, his back turned to Naruto.

Naruto held his breath until Sai had left and the door had completely closed before letting out a huge breath. "Phew. Thank goodness he didn't realize I was talking about him. Though he did get the fact that I want to pound Sasuke's ass correct though. Sasuke annoys me more than Sai does."

Shikamaru rolled over to face the blond teen. "Okay. Let's get one thing straight. The phrase 'pound his ass' makes it sound like you are talking about having sex with him. And unless I am mistaken, which I don't think I am, I highly suggest you change your wording. Perhaps to 'I want to beat the shit out of him'. That would be more acceptable."

During Shikamaru's notification, Naruto's face had paled considerably. "Oh. Oh. _OH!_ Okay. Thank you Shika."

Shikamaru sighed again before returning to his side to face the wall. Jeez. No wonder the kid's in this camp. No brains… at all.

About five minutes later, Naruto had wrapped himself up in one of the many blankets stocked in the room and had seated himself in front of his laptop. Shikamaru had almost fallen asleep when someone, he had a wild guess that it was Sai again, knocked on the door. Why the teen decided to knock this time and not the last was beyond him.

Shikamaru groaned and rolled over sluggishly. "Oy. Naruto, get the door will you. I'm trying to sleep."

Naruto grumbled, paused whatever computer game he had been played and gathered up his blankets and stumbled to the door.

As Shikamaru had prophesized, it was indeed Sai waiting at the door, clutching a small piece of light green paper. "Hello. I have returned as I said I would. And I have something for you, Naruto."

Sai stepped in the room a little bit, enough for Naruto to close the door behind the teen. When Naruto turned back around to face Sai, he was met with the small piece of paper inches away from his face. Unearthing a hand from his cocoon of a blanket, Naruto took the paper out of Sai's hand before squinting his eyes to read it.

Sai smiled slightly and returned his hand to his side. "I thought you might appreciate it. Seeing as how you keep saying you would like to pound Sasuke. I thought I should give you the opportunity."

Shikamaru twitched at the wording again, then frowned as he heard what Sai had said after. How was he giving Naruto the opportunity?

Naruto stared at the paper with unrivaled concentration before muttering something about not being able to read upside down before rotating the slip in his hand. "Wait. What?! I don't want to have a sleepover with _SASUKE_!"

Shikamaru groaned. If Sai switched rooms with Naruto that means that he would have to bunk with Sai. And while the kid is quiet, something about his presence irked him.

Sai frowned slightly, looking confused and concerned. "Did you not say you wished to beat Sasuke? I have given you the opportunity to do so. Surely, in the comfort of his room he will not be expecting the attack?"

Naruto looked like he was considering it. Sai did have a point after all, and especially if he hadn't notified Sasuke of the temporary switch yet. "Yes. This could work out well." Naruto said with a rather evil grin on his face before unwrapping himself from the blanket and walking over to his bed. "Heh, I like it! Hey, Shikamaru, what do you think?"

Shikamaru let out a groan before responding. "Troublesome."

Sai tilted his head. "What is troublesome?"

"You."

Sai's frown deepened. "How am I troublesome?"

Shikamaru sighed. "You just are."

Sai looked intently at Shikamaru's lazy form before turning around and opening the door. "I will return in a few minutes."

Meanwhile, Naruto was furiously packing a small duffle bag, and when Shikamaru took a close look at what all Naruto was throwing into it, he realized that none of it was clothing. In fact, Naruto was packing miscellaneous items with which he hoped to defeat Sasuke. Apparently, Naruto was hoping a fire extinguisher, a cactus, and a dead raccoon were going to be able to aid him in his quest to 'pound Sasuke's ass'.

"Naruto, are you sure you want to do this?"

Naruto glanced at Shikamaru over his shoulder while simultaneously wrapping an octopus tentacle in some underwear. "Oh yeah. Nothing is going to stop me from defeating my rival!"

Shikamaru frowned. "So he is your rival now?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! For sure. You gonna be okay with Sai?"

Shikamaru didn't reply right away, in fact, Naruto wouldn't have been surprised if Shikamaru had fallen asleep.

"Yeah. I suppose. The kid just gives me a bad feeling, that's all."

Again, someone knocked at the door, and Naruto flounced over to it to swing it open. And again, it was Sai who greeted them from the other side.

"What brings you here, oh great paladin?"

Sai was confused once more. "I am not a paladin, Naruto. And I have returned with something for Shikamaru."

Naruto shrugged off the fact that Sai didn't get his joke and opened the door so the teen could make his way over to Shikamaru's lounge post.

Once Sai reached the edge of Shikamaru's bed, he extended his hand and placed a small slip of green paper next o Shikamaru's head. "Seeing as how you feel most comfortable when you are not around me, I have taken the liberty of setting up a place for you to sleep. This way, Naruto can pound Sasuke to his hearts content, I can have a room to myself for the night, and you can sleep somewhere where it is possible to sleep."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. That was oddly… nice of him. Begrudgingly sitting up, Shikamaru rubbed his head and grabbed hold of the piece of paper, bringing it up to his face and squinting tiredly at the slip.

It took him about 30 seconds to realize what room number he was sleeping in that night, and whom exactly he would be sharing it with.

"There is no way in hell….in _hell_… that I am going to be sleeping in the same room as Neji. No way."

Sai frowned and Shikamaru could hear Naruto trying to make it sound as though he was coughing and not laughing. All he ended up doing though was choking on the sock he was covering his mouth with.

"I do not understand. Do you have a problem with Neji? I did not note any disturbances when observing you two today. In fact, Neji looked rather smitten with you. I believe smitten is the correct word, yes?"

Naruto burst out laughing and Shikamaru shot him a dirty look. "Yes. You could use that word. And that is one of the reasons why I would rather not sleep in the same vicinity as him."

Sai looked at him blankly. "Well, my apologies, but Iruka said to me that once you have arranged plans for sleepovers, you may not cancel them. So I am sorry Shikamaru, but you are going to have to sleep in Neji's room tonight."

Shikamaru would have scowled at Sai if he had the energy. He had a feeling that tomorrow, he wouldn't have enough energy to do much of anything, cause there was no way he was going to actually fall _asleep_ in the room of someone who wants his ass!

Sai made a small bow in front of Shikamaru before excusing himself to go gather some necessities. Shikamaru angrily flopped back down on his bed and glared absentmindedly at Naruto who was staring intently at a mechanical orb thing, muttering about whether it still worked or not. Shikamaru's eye twitched when Naruto pressed an invisible switch on the orb and a five inch switch blade popped out. Naruto looked rather pleased with himself and immediately sheathed the knife and shoved the sphere into his bag. [A/N: This orb thing is from the very first manga I ever read. Do you people know what it is??? ^_^]

Shikamaru groaned and rolled out of bed before addressing Naruto. "Maybe Iruka won't notice if I sleep in the hallway."

Naruto glanced at him before pulling some pants on. "Sure he would. He has some sort of whack senses that alert him to anything abnormal. You should just go sleepover at Neji's. It can't be _that_ bad."

Shikamaru sighed heavily. As much as he wanted to deny it, Naruto did have a point. It was just one night, and if Neji did something, all he had to do was muster up enough energy to scream bloody murder. Then again, if he screamed murder, the first person to arrive would probably be Gaara, and then there _would_ be murder.

Shikamaru groaned again and stood up, stretched then grabbed the piece of paper off his bed before heading out the door.

"Hey! Where are you going?! You don't have any of your stuff together."

Shikamaru looked back over his shoulder before replying and closing the door. "I'm going and telling Neji that he has a roommate for the night."

After hearing Naruto's yell of confirmation, Shikamaru turned around and practically slammed into Sai, who was clutching a small bag and a sketch book like it was a dying family member. "Sorry, Sai. You can go on in."

Sai nodded curtly before readjusting his belongings and opening the door.

Shikamaru frowned and started walking down the hall towards the door at the very end. He walked slower than usual, somehow believing that maybe, just maybe, something would happen to make it where he didn't have to do this. Like some sort of fairy would fall out of the sky, crack Iruka on the head and tell him that subjecting Shikamaru to this sort of activity was cruel and unusual punishment.

But, alas, the world was lacking fairies that day. Surely, any other day there would have been a plentiful supply of the little non-existent sprites.

Shikamaru sighed as he found himself standing in front of Neji's door. Maybe he was dead? Maybe he was in the bathroom, resulting in Shikamaru sleeping in the hall like he wanted. He could only hope.

Raising his arm to knock on the door, it swung open mere seconds before Shikamaru was intending on knocking. Shikamaru was crying on the inside.

"Hello."

Shikamaru glared at Neji, not intending to answer any time soon.

Neji was leaning on the doorframe, clad in a pair of black boxers and a white wife beater. While Shikamaru was glaring at him, Neji smirked back.

"I said hello."

Shikamaru's eye twitched. This night was getting better and better. And guess what? It was only 10!

"Hi." Oh yeah. That one was forced.

Neji's smug look grew. "May I ask why you are here? Not that I am complaining of course."

Shikamaru jerked his other hand up and shoved the paper against Neji's chest, pressing it there until the other teen reached up and took it from him.

A few seconds later, Neji finished reading the slip of paper and look up at Shikamaru inquisitively. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember inviting you over."

Shikamaru took in Neji's confused face and saw hope. "Sai signed me up. He switched rooms with Naruto for tonight so Naruto could surprise-attack Sasuke, then got Iruka to let me stay the night with you so he could have the room to himself. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I'll be sleeping in the hall now. Goodnight."

As Shikamaru spun on his heel and began to walk away, he felt a hand grab the back of his shirt collar and abruptly jerk him back. He fell against what he logically assumed to be Neji's chest and felt Neji's mouth press against his ear. Shikamaru spluttered as a curtain of black hair took up residence in his mouth.

"Now, now. There's no need to be doing that. I just wasn't expecting it, that's all."

Shikamaru felt Neji's smirk against the side of his face and scowled. He could no longer see a way out of this situation. He was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it. Like Naruto said, it's just one night. That was going to be his motto. It's just one night. It's just one night.

Neji pushed Shikamaru gently off his chest, and moved him further into the hall. "Go get your stuff. I need to clean up a bit."

And with that, Shikamaru heard the door behind him close. Seeing no other option, Shikamaru slowly walked down the hall. Really slowly. Like one step every 30 seconds slowly. About 5 minutes later and only half way to his room, Shikamaru heard a door open to his left, and sees Gaara poking his head out of the small opening.

"Do you want me to kill him for you?"

Shikamaru twitched. Great. Not only does the demented kid have a thing for death, but he has supersonic hearing as well.

"No. Go back to sleep, Gaara."

Gaara hissed at him. Literally. "I don't sleep." And then he withdrew his head from the hall and shut the door.

Shikamaru sighed. And the psychopath doesn't sleep either. Talk about a problem child.

Deciding to walk a normal pace back to his room, the lazy teen opened the door and was welcomed with a view of a "sleeping" Sai and a very naked Naruto.

Naruto was standing with his back to him – again, naked – and Sai was lying on Shikamaru's bed, pretending to be asleep while staring at Naruto's backside through his eyelashes. Shikamaru sighed. This whole camp was full of crazies! He was the only sane person he, wasn't he? Well, him and Chouji.

"Naruto. Put some clothes on. Please?"

Naruto looked back over his shoulder, thankfully instead of turning around, and looked at Shikamaru. "NO! Putting on clothes will ruin my element of surprise! Imagine Sasuke's face once he realizes that not only have I bested him in battle, but I am also NAKED! BWAHAHA! You can't beat my logic!"

Shikamaru sighed. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

"Naruto, I'm pretty sure that if you had any logic, I could beat it. Hands down."

Naruto frowned. "You're weird, Shika. Anyway, my artillery is stocked and in a few moments, I shall be off!"

"Yeah, okay. Sai, you need to move. I have to get my stuff together."

Sai grumbled softly and sat up, moved lazily off of Shikamaru's bed and made his way over to Naruto's. Once he was situated in Naruto's bed, he rolled over so not only did he have a great view of Naruto's still naked front, but he had a great view of pretty much whatever else was offered up in his line of sight.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes before picking up a small backpack and shoving cloths into it. Once he got his change of clothing, he grabbed his toothbrush and other necessities and crammed them into the bag. How this thing got him through two years of high school was beyond him, especially if he had difficulty fitting a change of clothing in it.

Slinging the pack over his shoulder, he absentmindedly waved to Naruto and Sai before walking out the door and trekking down the hall. While passing Gaara's door, he could have sworn he heard hissing, but he wasn't sure.

Reaching Neji's door, he was able to actually knock this time before the door was opened and he was again greeted by a smug looking Neji. This time, he didn't have a shirt on.

"Glad to see you decided to come back."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes yet again and pushed past Neji into the teen's room. He got about four steps into the room before he completely took in his surroundings. This room was so much better than his and Naruto's. It obviously used to be an instructor's room, as everything was more high tech and modern compared to the appliances in his room.

The T.V was a large flat screen, the computer he recognized as one of the computers in his magazines that cost over $5,000. The bed was a four post California King with black sheets. There was a balcony and an enormous bathroom, complete with extravagant tile and marble. Shikamaru thought he even saw a Jacuzzi.

He noticed that Neji had walked up beside him and was now leaning his arm on Shikamaru's shoulder, gauging the lazy teen's expression.

"Like it? Apparently, it used to be the owner's room. But then they built themselves a separate building. I'm the first person to have used it since them. Pretty neat, huh?"

All Shikamaru could do was nod. If this was the old bedroom, what did the new one look like? Especially if they built themselves a whole _building_. Can you say 'money'?

"So, you will be sleeping on that side. I've already claimed the right."

Neji's statement snapped Shikamaru out of his money induced shock and sent him into a lack of comfort zone induced shock.

Shikamaru's gaze returned to the massive bed. And regardless of the enormity of the piece of furniture, there was no way that Shikamaru was going to sleep near Neji. He had actually been opting for the balcony. Seemed cozy.

Neji smirked at Shikamaru's obvious distaste for the arrangements. "Don't worry. I won't pull anything. I'm too tired."

With that, Neji turned and walked off, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed and picked up a nearby remote and turned on the TV.

Shikamaru sighed in resignation and decided that with the bed being large as a fricken' continent, he should be okay for about half the night. And half is better than none at all, so he took it.

Muttering something about getting changed, Shikamaru walked off to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him when he saw Neji looking at him. Turning around, the teen got the chance to really admire the bathroom. More like a bathhouse he'd say.

There was a separate room for the toilet, a small stand up shower stall, and a traditional Japanese onsen. There was also a Jacuzzi, and open shower next to it, and another balcony with a small hot tub. Against the wall opposite the Jacuzzi was a long counter with an equally long mirror above it. On the counter were a massive sink, and multiple areas for vanity necessities.

Admiring the craftsmanship of the marble and tile, Shikamaru walked further in and sat down on the bench next to the Jacuzzi and opened up his backpack.

Pulling out his blue sleep shorts and setting them on the bench next to him, Shikamaru stood up and started pulling off his cloths. Absentmindedly, he remembered his mom singing a song to him as a kid about how to take your clothes off without killing yourself. Shikamaru used to try and take his shirt off by pulling it down, around his knees. One encounter of this strange habit ended up with Shikamaru's head still in the head hole, but it was also sharing the space with his calf while his foot was stuck next to his ear.

Yeah. Shikamaru used to be a ditz.

After he stripped down and then donned his shorts, he shoved his clothing into his backpack and walked over to the door and then out into the room where Neji was still lounging and watching TV.

Realizing how little the amount of clothing he was actually wearing became apparent to the teen when he saw Neji gazing appreciatorily over the fair amount of skin that had been presented to him.

Shikamaru blushed and awkwardly shuffled over to the bed before dropping his bag down on the left side and sitting up at the front on the pillows. After realizing that it was about half an hour before lights were out, he decided to make it clear to Neji that there was to be no funny business at all.

"Oy. Neji."

The smug teen looked at Shikamaru over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"You better keep your hands to yourself, capiche?"

Neji rolled his eyes. "Yes, oh mighty king-of-mine. I am but a slave in your presence." And with that, he swiveled his head back around and continued to watch his TV show, which resembled some sort of docudrama.

Shikamaru felt slightly relieved, even though Neji didn't sound like he had meant it that much. Deciding that he should probably go to bed now, he shoved back the pillows and stuck his feet under the covers, scooting down until everything but his head and shoulders were covered by the black sheets.

Neji saw that Shikamaru's feet and legs were pretty close to where he was sitting, and decided to lay down on them, using his calves as a makeshift pillow while he continued to stare at the screen. Shikamaru decided that this amount of contact was okay, seeing as how Neji wasn't trying anything. He was just laying there. And it was actually kind of comfortable.

Looking at the clock on the nightstand on his side of the bed, Shikamaru deemed it time to go to sleep when he realized that it was almost eleven. And thus, the last thing he saw before he fell asleep was Neji's pale back and long black hair spread out across the bed.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

When Shikamaru woke up, all he could see was white. Well, not _white_, but something pale. And that pale something was none other than Neji's chest.

Apparently, Neji moves around in his sleep. A lot. Because he went from falling asleep at the foot of the bed to sleeping _next to_ Shikamaru. And not only just sleeping next to, more like sleeping _entangled with_. Neji had one arm draped over Shikamaru's waist with his hand pressed against the small of his back, his other arm was mostly occupied by Shikamaru's head. His hand was curled in Shikamaru's hair, which had fallen out of his ponytail sometime last night. Neji also had captured one of Shikamaru's legs and was holding it hostage with his own long legs.

While Shikamaru thought that this position was definitely past his comfort zone, he was just thankful that this was all Neji had done when he was asleep. And frankly, he supposed it _was_ sort of comfortable.

Pulling a very owl-like movement, Shikamaru looked behind him and saw that it was already ten past eight, and if they wanted to get to breakfast while there was still some food left, the needed to be in the cafeteria by nine, at the latest.

Shikamaru started to struggle, but trying to pry Neji off of him was harder than it looked. He moved the arm that was around his waist only to have it wrap around his neck and pull his head closer to the sleeping teen's chest. Seeing as how Shikamaru was going to die via pectoral suffocation, he opted for the only waking method he saw available. Actually, he was pretty sure he could have woken Neji with other methods, but this was more fun.

Wriggling his leg so that the grip Neji's had on it was looser, he crooked it at the knee and slammed it straight up into Neji's groin. What Shikamaru failed to remember was that when men are kicked, kneed or injured in the groin area, they almost always double over. And seeing as how he was practically attached to Neji, as a result of the teen doubling over, Shikamaru ended up being bent backwards. And not just a small little tilt, like he was having a conversation with his other foot that was hanging off the bed.

But still, despite the amount of pain he was enduring in the spinal cord region of his body, Shikamaru still had time to chuckle and smirk satisfactorily. Neji was definitely awake. Hello, foot.

"Shika… I'm going to _kill_ you! How am I suppose to satisfy you with damaged goods?"

Shikamaru's eye twitched. "Shut up and let me off, Neji. This isn't the time to mourn over your loss of what you never had in the first place."

Neji emitted a noise that was half irritated grumble and half pained groan. "Fine. I'm moving."

As soon as Neji had relinquished his grip, Shikamaru slid off the bed and fell unceremoniously into a heap on the floor. He frowned as he heard Neji chuckle at him, and he stuck his tongue at the raven haired teen after he got up. Grabbing his bag, he marched off – lazily marched off, mind you – to the bathroom.

Returning from the room five minutes or so later, he was greeted with the site of a dressed Neji, waiting for him to get done so that they could go to breakfast.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Just because he had a sleepover in Neji's room didn't mean he was going to stick with him afterwards. It wasn't like he had a choice with the sleeping arrangements, but he surely has a choice with whom he hangs out with.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Shikamaru opened the door before Neji could get it for him, and walked straight to his own room. A quick glance over his shoulder showed that Neji was locking the door , and was intent on following Shikamaru to his room.

In response to Neji's actions, Shikamaru slipped into his room and quickly shut the door behind him, making sure to press the little button on the knob to ensure no one could get in. Scanning the room really quick, he saw that Sai had straightened up pretty much the whole room. Both beds were made and neat, the clothing and generally disaster left on the floor from Naruto's previous planning was no longer there, and the room actually looked better than what it had when he and Naruto first walked in.

Seeing that Sai was no longer there, he tossed his bag on his bed and realized that the doors to the food would be open in about 10 minutes, and Chouji would probably clear half the stock before people had started walking.

Stuffing his feet into his sneakers, he gave the room one more glance before turning and walking out the room.

And right into Neji.

Shikamaru sighed. "What?"

Neji raised an eyebrow before starting to walk beside the other teen in their quest to find food. "I was waiting for you, seeing as how you oh-so-kindly left me alone in the hallway."

Nearing the end of the hallway, Neji opened the door to the stairs for Shikamaru, following behind him as he walked through the door. But of course, he couldn't help himself and squeezed Shika's butt as he passed.

And, of course, chuckled as the teen jumped.

"Would you _stop_?!"

Thankfully, no adult was in the lobby to hear this outburst. "No. I don't think I will."

Shikamaru scowled and started walking briskly out the door. Why couldn't the guy get it through his head?! He didn't like him, he didn't enjoy the sleepover, in fact, and the only reason _why_ he agreed with it was because it was only one night. It wasn't going to kill him. But if he knew that in the end, he would have a Neji follower, trying to weasel himself into any and all of his plans, then he would have ignored Sai and gone with his original plan: sleeping in the hallway.

As they approached the cafeteria, Shikamaru saw that a small line had only just begun outside of the building and thanked the high heavens that Chouji wasn't in it yet. That meant he was going to at least get some sort of food.

Getting in line behind an unnaturally skinny blonde chick, he sighed dejectedly as Neji didn't stand behind him, but stood next to him and stared down anyone who dared to glance in Shikamaru's way. A human guard dog, how wonderful.

Sighing again and wishing that someone would come and open the damn doors already, Shikamaru looked behind him when he heard sudden yelling and screaming coming from the Boy's Dorm entrance. He saw a very irate looking Sasuke almost running out of the building, and a very frantic yet slightly proud looking Naruto chasing after him.

"Admit it! I beat you!" Ah, no wonder Naruto looked proud.

Sasuke apparently wasn't very happy with the fact that Naruto chose to scream this to the world and lost whatever dignity he had left.

"Suffocating me with an octopus while beating me over the head with a fire extinguisher is not what I call a fair fight!"

Shikamaru snorted to himself.

"Yes it is! And you forgot me shoving the cactus in your pants. That thing was priceless you know. You didn't have to burn it."

Sasuke's eye was twitching so fas,t Shikamaru actually though it was generating a breeze, and a chunk of Naruto's hair started flowing in the non-existent wind. That must have been one _powerful_ eyelid in order to actually create friggen wind.

"Yes I did! And I don't even understand why you were in my room in the first place! With no clothes on to boot! You're a freak Naruto! I can't believe I actually got any sleep at all last night. And then I wake up with a face full of raccoon. And not just any old raccoon – a DEAD raccoon. Why in all hell do you have a dead raccoon with you at camp?!"

Naruto chuckled. "I found it. His name is Rocky."

Sasuke was getting so angry, his face was turning quite the brilliant shade of red.

Shikamaru turned away from the amusing argument when he realized that the Kakashi guy from the opening ceremony had unlocked the door to the cafeteria and was now letting people in to eat.

Not bothering to react at all when he saw that Neji was obediently following him into and around the building, Shikamaru made a beeline to the food trays before piling breakfast on top of it.

Once he had a healthy stack of ham, eggs, toast, sausage, bagels, and bacon, he made his way over to the table where Naruto and Kiba were occupying. How Naruto managed to not only get into the building before him, but also get through the food line before him without being noticed was one of those mysteries that the world will spend hundreds of years trying to figure out. And then the scientists will kill themselves because they can't solve it. Oh yes. Shikamaru was in a grumpy mood today.

Setting his tray down, he again ignored Neji as the teen sat next to him. Picking up his fork and starting on his eggs, he tuned into the mindless babble of Naruto and Kiba. One might call it a conversation. One might also say that imitating animal noises and debating about whom was better looking out of the whole group is hardly called a conversation. More so categorized under the 'insult to conversations' section.

"What about that chick over there?" Kiba was currently pointing across the room to a shy looking, white eyed and blue haired girl who was currently nibbling on some bacon. As soon as Neji saw who Kiba was pointing at, he immediately interjected.

"Don't even think about it."

Kiba's head swiveled around to face Neji, and it seemed like it took a few seconds for the teen to even realize the other had spoken.

"What do you-?"

"Don't."

"Don't wha-?"

"Don't even _think_. About it."

"I'm confused. What are-?"

Neji picked up a knife and started twirling it. "You're thinking. I can see you think. Stop."

Shikamaru actually chuckled at this comment. Then, when he realized what he did, he shoved his face full of toast and looked at Neji questioningly when Neji smirked at him.

"Okay. Naruto? Do you have any idea what this guy is-?" Kiba was immediately shut up as the butter knife flew out of Neji's hands and embedded itself into the wall some mere centimeters away from Kiba's eyeballs. "Not thinking! NOT THINKING!"

Neji glared at Kiba more so than before. "Good. Keep it that way," he said before turning his gaze back to Shikamaru.

And then Shikamaru decided to open his mouth.

"So you got a girlfriend Neji? She is fairly pretty." Naruto's mouth fell open and stared at Shikamaru and Kiba almost shat himself. Yes, there was a rather foul odor in the air. Wait no, Lee just walked by, screaming something about how taking showers rid the body of its youthfulness. Poor Gaara. Poor hissing Gaara.

Neji's eye twitched before settling back to its half open phase. "No. You are mistaken. That girl, Hinata Hyuuga, is my cousin. And my father has entrusted me with the duty of making sure she stays out of harm's way. And you, foul boy, stink of it!" With the last statement, Neji glared at Kiba furiously.

And then it was Naruto's turn.

"That's right Kiba. You smell like harm. Stink like it actually. Never knew it harm had a smell, but now I know. You stink like harm Kiba. Stink. Like. Harm." And then Naruto burst out laughing. Even Kiba dared to chuckle a little bit before swallowing his tongue as he saw the looks everyone was getting from Neji.

Naruto also saw and decided to try and restore peace to the table, as they had been joined by Shino, Gaara, Sasuke, Lee, Sai, and two chicks. The skinny one with the blonde hair and the annoying one with the pink hair. Why they were here, Shikamaru had no idea.

"So Neji. How come you are sitting with us today? You didn't seem very interested last night. Change of heart?"

Neji glared at Naruto before deeming the question worthy. "I am attempting to get into Shikamaru's good graces."

And then the blonde haired chick and her little friend spoke up. Actually, due to the insanely high octave of their voices, the sounds that came out of their mouth could not be considered talking, or speaking up. It reminded Shikamaru of the soundtrack of someone being hit by a car. Squealing tires, shrieks and screams of pain by the person who got hit, and the astounded screams by those who witnessed the accident. Quite similar, really.

"You two would make a _really_ cute couple, ya know? You guys should hook up. And you two," she indicated towards Naruto and Sasuke. "And you two." This time towards Sai and Gaara. "And you two," towards Shino and Kiba. "But not you," she sneered at Lee. "You shouldn't be allowed to reproduce."

Lee scoffed and started lecturing her on the amazing youthfulness his body possessed and how she should stop covering up her youthful beauty with shit makeup. Shikamaru chuckled.

Meanwhile, all the boys were looking at each other confusedly. What was the blonde loon talking about? Surely no one _knew_ about it. [A/N: Really guys, those aren't the parings.]

Neji turned confidently to look back at Shikamaru. "See? Even she agrees with me."

And with that, Shikamaru stood up, grabbed his tray and walked towards the used tray counter. "Yeah, well, I don't."

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

About twenty minutes later, Shikamaru found himself with the rest of the people there in the lobby of the main building. Apparently, everyone's first class of camp was therapy. Or, as Iruka liked to put it: 'Group Counseling'. Cause according to Kiba, you can't be in therapy unless you are crazy, and not everyone here was crazy. Therefore, it had to be counseling.

Turning his attention to the desk near the end of the insanely large lobby they were in, Shikamaru saw Kakashi stride out lazily and address the group. "Since Iruka won't be with me today, its obviously only going to be me. And I don't know how to do this. And I'm lazy. Pair off and council yourselves."

At the many complains and harsh remarks to Kakashi's lack of intelligence, the man spun around and glared at the teenagers. "I've never done this before. And unless you all want to die-" With this, Kakashi reached into his vest and pulled out a skinning knife. "I suggest you lot do what I say. I promise that next time, Iruka will be here and I will know what I'm doing. Face the person closest to you, pair off, and go into the adjacent rooms. Talk about your problems, and why you think you are here. Good day." And with that, the strange man walked back through the door of which he had come out of.

Everyone started paring themselves off with their friends, regardless of who they were really closer to. And as pairs started leaving two by two into the rooms lining the side of the lobby, he found that he now had to endure two hours of counseling with Neji. Alone. In a locked room.

He turned to face the teen and saw that he was already in the last empty room, and walked slowly into the room after him, shutting the door behind him and wincing when he heard it automatically lock. No doubt the room was sound proof.

Neji, who had been sitting in one of the two chairs next to the small table got up and pulled Shikamaru towards himself before sitting back down and forcing Shikamaru to sit on his lap. Once he got the both of the situated, Neji wrapped his arms around Shikamaru's waist and leaned up to press his lips against the other teen's ear before talking quietly.

"So Shikamaru. Where shall we start? Hm? Why don't you go first?"

And so it began.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

**A/N:** Hey guys. Yeah, I'm back. After what, like a year? I know, I'm horrible. But unfortunately, until now, I haven't gotten the chance, more like my parents have restricted the access to my computer, to finish writing. But, now that I have started working, I am now able to continuously write. Not that its good anyways. One of the few reasons why I started again is 'cause my best friend won't stop nagging me. Anyway. I'd like to give a shout out to my beta, Rin. Love you, dearie. Okay, my boss is around the corner, so I'm shutting up. ^_________^

**LMS**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto at all :(

Warning: Um, random stuff. Teens with disorders. Sarcasm. Some wit I would like to think. Yaoi as well ^_^

* * *

Shikamaru took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart as Neji clutched him closer. This was starting to get _really_ uncomfortable, and the lazy teen's struggles weren't helping him get away any.

Going slightly limp in Neji's arms, Shikamaru decided to answer the other teen's question and hope that maybe if he kept talking, Neji wouldn't try anything. You know, one of those things were you try and distract your enemy until you get the chance to run away. Yeah, Shika was screwed.

"So um, you want to know why I'm here?" Shikamaru tried to sound calm and indifferent to the situation. Neji nodded and mumbled out an "mm-hmm" before nuzzling his face into the crook of Shikamaru's neck.

Shikamaru turned a brilliant shade of red, but answered none the less. "W-well, my mom sent me here because she thinks I'm too – HEY!" Shikamaru yelped and smacked the top of Neji's head when the other teen decided to playfully bite at Shika's neck.

The long haired brunette chuckled and loosened his arms from around Shikamaru's waist. Keeping one around the teen's hips, he moved the other up to rest at the base of Shikamaru's neck under his left ear. Rubbing circles on his neck, Neji tilted his head, brushing his lips against the edge of Shikamaru's chin. "Honestly Shika, I could care less why you're here. In fact, if your mom is the one that sent you, I'm going to send her a thank you card later."

Shikamaru snorted at the other's comment and tried to swat away the hand that was resting on his neck. He _really_ hoped that someone would come along and sees what was going on and, you know, _help him_!

Shikamaru opened his mouth again to try and tell Neji to let him go, but instead almost squeaked when he felt the arm around his waist tighten and the hand at his neck push his chin towards Neji. Shikamaru's eyes widened as he felt the other teen gently press his lips against his mouth. Shikamaru's hands flew to try and pry the arm off from around his hips, to push Neji away from him and to unconnect their mouths. But no, Neji was a tough one and easily kept a firm grip on the struggling teen on his lap.

Neji pressed more with the hand on Shikamaru's neck, in return pressing their mouths together harder. Shikamaru, now deciding that escaping was a lost cause, went lax and just sat there, waiting for the other teen to finish. Absentmindedly looking around the room, he vaguely noticed that the Hyuuga's lips were rather soft. Much like he had imagined a girl's lips to be.

Apparently Neji was growing frustrated by Shikamaru's lack of response, as the long haired teen lightly bit at Shikamaru's bottom lip. Smirking when he heard, and felt, Shikamaru suck in a quick breath, Neji swiftly darted his tongue into the other's mouth.

Shikamaru's eyes had widened when he felt Neji's confident tongue brushing across his lips, almost reassuring him that what was going on really was okay. Letting his eyelids drop a fraction, Shikamaru hesitantly tapped the intruding tongue with his own. The teen supposed he could just chalk whatever was going on up as getting experience for the ladies. Psh. Yeah right. This was so troublesome.

Smirking against the other boy's mouth, Neji moved his tongue further in, grazing it against the top of smooth, even teeth. Using the arm wrapped around the smaller teen's waist, Neji shifted Shikamaru so that the other was facing him. Neji pulled away from Shikamaru and smiled when he saw the other boy frown in confusion, his eyes shut tight.

Awkwardly moving Shikamaru up off his lap, Neji used his thigh to nudge Shikamaru's left leg aside so that the teen was straddling him. Now content with the situation, Neji placed one hand on Shikamaru's left knee, and the other one he moved up to the confused teen's face and cupped his cheek. "You're so cute," he murmured before leaning in again and rubbing his lips lightly against the others before delving his tongue into Shika's warm mouth.

In the back of his head, Shikamaru was screaming at himself to stop fraternizing with the enemy. But at that moment, he didn't really care that he was leading Neji on. What the other teen was doing felt good, and it felt right. So he went along with it.

Shikamaru wrapped his arms around Neji's neck, burying his hands in the long dark hair and pushing the other teen's face closer. Planting his feet on the ground, he scooted closer to Neji, pressing himself closer to him and deepening the kiss. Shikamaru wasn't sure why he hadn't gone along with this sooner.

Neji smirked into the kiss and welcomed the teen's awkward embrace. Sliding his right hand back, he carefully slid the hair band out of Shikamaru's ponytail and onto his own wrist. With one hand, he massaged gentle circles and patterns on Shika's scalp. With the other, he simultaneously started rubbing reassuring shapes on the inside of the others knee.

Opening his mouth, Shikamaru let out a sharp gasp when Neji started playing with his hair. Again, somewhere in the back of his head, Shikamaru envisioned himself standing on a stool and hanging himself. Shoving the image away, the lazy teen tilted his head and then decided that it was his turn to explore Neji's mouth and proceeded to do just that.

Cracking his eyes open a tad, Neji decided he liked the look of a red faced, flustered Shikamaru with his hair down and layered around his face. He wasn't going to be giving that hair band back, nope. Moving his hand up, Neji continued rubbing circles on Shikamaru's leg, this time a few inches up the inside of his thigh. The long haired teen smirked when he felt the Shika's hips involuntarily move forward when he shifted his hand. Looking at the teen's face again, Neji noticed that Shikamaru's face was getting really red, and he felt the teens breath along his wet lips come out in short, sharp pants.

Smirking, Neji shifted his hand up a few more inches, using his thumb to gently rub the sensitive skin of Shikamaru's inner thigh. Neji pulled his mouth away from the others and kissed a wet line down to Shikamaru's jaw line, planting open mouthed kisses up to the corner of his jaw before moving down to his neck. Shikamaru gasped and let out a small, breathy noise when Neji started sucking on his neck.

Neji decided that out of everything he has ever tasted, Shikamaru had to be the best. He couldn't quiet place it, but the taste of the other teens skin was simply divine, and Neji decided that he never wanted to move his mouth away from the others neck. Well, maybe later he supposed. He could think of a few places he would rather have his mouth. Moving his hand up a little more, Neji held back a groan as Shikamaru involuntarily gasped and rolled his hips into Neji's lap.

Intending to move his hand further up, Neji's actions were put to an immediate stop when loud, sharp knocking was heard at the door. Shikamaru snapped his head away from Neji's and stared at him in shock with wide eyes before it dawned on him what he had been doing. The Shika in the back of his head rolled his eyes.

The knocking started up again and Shikamaru flung himself off the other teen. Stepping back a few feet away from the chair, he was still staring in shock at Neji.

The dark haired teen growled and stood up angrily before marching over to the door and flinging it open, intending to cuss out whomever had ruined his chance with Shikamaru.

He found himself face to face with a smirking Kakashi. "Why hello."

Shikamaru's hands instinctively moved to his hair, a nervous habit, and went to pull down his pony tail and re-do it when he caught sight of his hair tie looped around Neji's thin wrist. Frowning, he pulled another tie out from his pocket and secured his messy, tangled hair. Jamming his hands into his pant pockets, Shikamaru took to glaring at the back of Neji's head, hoping that it would burst into flames.

Neji forcefully lessened his glare when he saw that it was an instructor who had been knocking. "Yes, Mr. Kakashi?"

The silver haired man leaned and looked past Neji and at Shikamaru before grinning. "Well, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Iruka came back so we can now have class the way we were supposed to. I'd like you two to come back into the main room while I finish telling the rest of the kids."

Shikamaru sighed in relief and forcefully shoved passed Neji after Kakashi walked away, not giving the other teen enough time to register what had just happened.

Quickly walking into the large main room, Shikamaru spotted Chouji and uncharacteristically rushed over to greet him. Or hide behind him.

Looking up from his bag of chips, Chouji grinned when he caught sight of Shikamaru. "Hey Shika – whoa. What happened to you?"

Shikamaru let out a huge breath and leaned against the wall next to Chouji. "I got jumped by Neji."

Chouji nodded and crammed another chip in his mouth. Swallowing, he answered his friend. "I can tell. He looks pissed. What'd you do?"

Shikamaru looked over to where he saw the brunette walk out of the small conference room they had been in and walk over to Sasuke and stand next to him. Sasuke glanced over at the glaring Hyuuga and snorted before walking away.

Shikamaru shook his head. "I kissed back."

Chouji choked on one of his chips, hastily wiping his mouth with his sleeve before looking at Shikamaru in disbelief. "You did _what_?! Why'd you do that?"

The other teen growled and furrowed his brow, trying to come up with a reasonable answer. Sighing, Shikamaru decided to go with the usual. "It was too troublesome not to."

Chouji looked at him in confusion but whatever he had been intending to say was cut off by a now present Iruka.

"I'm terribly sorry everyone. I got caught up in a meeting with one of the instructors and I lost track of time." The brown haired man was frantically bustling around the room, ensuring that all of the tables had chairs and that there were enough for everyone to have a seat. "Okay, I don't care where you sit or whom you sit by."

Chouji and Shikamaru snagged a couple of chairs next to each other, the latter staying as far away form Neji as humanly possible.

Iruka, taking a seat next to a bored looking Kakashi, set a small pile of papers and notebooks down on his table and ruffled through them until he found the one he was looking for. "Okay, I'm going to take role really quick and then we will get started."

Standing back up, the man scanned the paper he was holding and then started calling out names.

"Sai?"

The black haired teen was sitting next to Naruto, much to the blonde's dismay. He raised his hand. "Present, Mr. Umino."

Iruka chuckled. "Okay, thank you. Gaara Sabaku?"

Gaara, sitting _on_ the table, intensified his glare for a few seconds.

Iruka chuckled again, this time nervously. "E-heh, okay, we'll work on that. Um, Hinata Hyuuga?"

The small, blue-haired girl shyly raised her hand and waved at Iruka. "Here."

"Good, good. Shino Aburame?"

A teen a few chairs away from Shikamaru silently raised his hand.

"Okay. Sasuke Uchiha?"

Sasuke glared at nothing and looked off to the side. "Here."

"Sakura Haruno?"

Ahh, so _that_ was the name of the pink haired wannabe. Said pink-haired wannabe snapped her gum and shot her hand in the air. Sticking her tongue out at her friend for having her name called first, she answered. "Right here! That would be me. Uh-huh. Me."

Iruka nodded in understanding and made a mark on his paper. "Naruto Uzumaki?"

The blonde shot his hand up in the air and grinned, waving the appendage around dangerously. "Right here, Iruka!"

"Okay, Shikamaru Nara?"

Shikamaru slowly raised his hand when he heard his name said, and glared back at Neji when he caught the other glaring at him. "Here."

"Ino Yamanaka?"

The blonde girl sitting next to Sakura pouted but raised her hand none the less. "Yes."

"Good, Kiba Inuzuka?"

The shaggy brunette who sat with them for breakfast that morning raised his hand and grinned at Iruka. "Right here."

Iruka nodded and scribbled something on his paper. "Neji Hyuuga."

Shikamaru smirked inwardly to himself when he saw the pissed off teen jerk his arm up into the air and grunt inaudibly.

"Um, Ten Ten?"

A brown haired girl with buns sitting next to Sakura waved her arm through the air.

"Over heeeeeeere!"

Iruka raised an eyebrow and continued down the list. "Rock Lee?"

Shikamaru groaned. The spandex clad boy jumped off his chair, did a flip in the air, and landed on one knee in front of Iruka. Flinging his arms open, he started to cry. "Oh thank you, thank you! Thank you youthful sir for calling my name! My most youthful name! For I deserve a youthful name because I have a youthful body! And I know that everyone in this room _wants_ my youthful body! So they can do naughty, yet oddly youthful things with me! Like – "

The rambling teen was cut off as one of Kakashi's legs flew out from under the table and nailed the teen in the balls. Lee went down like a sack of rocks and curled in on himself, groaning about "silver haired men lacking youth and compassion". Shikamaru chuckled to himself and filched one of Chouji's chips.

Iruka spun around and glared at Kakashi with one of those "what in the hell did you just do, you little shit" kinda glares. Kakashi blinked at him owlishly and shrugged. "I had a seizure."

Shikamaru laughed along with the rest of the class, except Neji, and grabbed another one of Chouji's chips.

Lee groaned and pulled himself sluggishly back to his seat.

"Last but not least, Chouji Akimichi?"

Chouji raised a crumb covered hand into the air, his mouth too full to actually announce his presence. Iruka chuckled and put down his paper on the table and took his seat again. Clearing his throat, the man positioned a few more papers in front of him before addressing the gathering of teenagers.

"Okay, so id hope the lot of you has enough common sense to figure out exactly what group counseling is. The gist of this class is to work as a group, rather than one on one, with each other in order to try and overcome the reasons why you were sent here."

Shikamaru sighed and leaned back in his chair. Closing his eyes, he deemed the class too troublesome and attempted to go to sleep.

"Now, seeing as how we have already used up about a third of our time today, we aren't going to be able to get to any in depth discussions regarding reasons why you are here. Instead, we are going to take the rest of the class to introduce ourselves, and state why your parents or family decided to send you here and what you hope to accomplish."

Getting multiple noises of affirmation from the teenagers, he continued. "Today is Kakashi's first day with this class, so he won't be interacting much. Next class though, will be run by him. So, first up –" Before he had the chance to read off who was actually supposed to go first, Naruto shot up and started screeching. "ME! Pick ME! I wanna go first! Pick me Iruka!"

Iruka sighed and smacked Kakashi in the head when the other man chuckled. "Sure, Naruto. Go ahead. Inform us why you are here."

Naruto grinned and contently sat back down. Clearing his voice, the blonde started to talk. "Well, I am here for two reasons." He held up two fingers and moved them in a half circle around himself so the whole room could see. "One: because Iruka is here. He is my dad, and I was too bored to stay home alone all summer, so I came with him!"

Iruka chuckled nervously as he suddenly had multiple glares being directed towards him. Kakashi rubbed his back reassuringly. "Hey, at least you guys don't have to live with him. He _could_ pawn Naruto off on one of you." The glares subsided.

Blinking confusedly at the interruption, Naruto snapped out of his daze and continued. "And the _second_ reason why I'm here is apparently I'm overly obnoxious, loud, and obscenely disrespectful. I have dangerous habits, I like scaring people, I eat too much ramen, I'm rude, I'm blonde, and I'm annoying. And one of my teachers called me a social anomaly."

Shikamaru snorted when he heard that last line, and cracked an eye open to glance at Naruto. As he thought, the blonde wasn't quite sure what the last word meant. Shaking his head and smiling minutely, he closed his eyes and again tried to get some sleep.

Kakashi was snickering to himself and suffered another smack to the head from Iruka, the brunette sighing a tiredly shaking his head. "Well, Naruto. That practically sums it up," his face falling slightly when Naruto looked proud at his words. "Again, let me iterate that today is just sharing why we are here. Though I would like for people to brainstorm individually how to help others with their reasons. How to help them improve."

Naruto grinned and bounced back down into his chair, using his feet to noisily scoot the furniture in. Swinging his head around to scan the room, the blonde flung an arm in Lee's direction and pointed. "I popcorn LEE!"

Iruka sighed and sat down, making a mental note that "lists" and "taking turns" would not exist in these sessions.

The green clad youth, having healed from Kakashi's attack, sprung up and struck a pose on the top of the table. "I am here for many youthful reasons. Let me list them off to you in a very youthfully enriched manner."

Naruto frowned, thinking that maybe he shouldn't have picked Lee.

"Youthful reason that I am here Number One! Apparently, according to my neighbors, my classmates, my teachers, and my parents, I am CRAZY! Borderline PSYCHOTIC!"

Shikamaru and a few others chuckled.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, and Iruka spoke up. "And how do you react to that?"

Lee struck another pose. "I tell them that YOUTH has no boundaries! Youthful reason why I am here Number Two! I say the word youthful a lot, but that is only because I want people to be aware of the presence of youth within me." Striking another pose, he continued. "Youthful reason why I am here Number Three!"

With this, Lee quietly sat down, acquiring a solemn expression and looking sadly at Iruka. "My lawyer said that I am a danger to society, and then called his wife to tell her that he loved her. He's been missing for three months."

Shikamaru made a mental note to not diss on Lee. Kakashi's eye twitched and Iruka looked like a deer caught in some headlights. "Um. Why did you need a lawyer?"

Lee stared at the space directly above Iruka's head before answering. "A lady in my neighborhood told me that God didn't like my youthfulness. I shot garden gnomes through her windows at night."

Shikamaru raised a worried eyebrow, and noticed out of the corner of his eye that Chouji had even stopped the continuous chain of food-to-mouth in order to gape at the spandex clad teen.

Iruka looked even more uncomfortable than before, and instead of pursuing the topic he glanced down at one of the papers on the table. "Um, okay, how about we go with-" the brown haired instructor was cut off as Lee raised a limp arm and pointed warily at Sakura. "Sakura. Sakura goes next."

Iruka sighed and hung his head, tiredly waving his hand around as permission for the pink-haired girl to take her turn. Shikamaru quietly chuckled when he saw Kakashi reassuredly pat Iruka on the back as the other man wadded up his list and threw it into the nearby trash bin.

Sakura looked around confusedly for a few seconds before shrugging and sticking her tongue out at her best friend. It was still a competition between the two to see who got called first. "Well, my name is Sakura Haruno, although everyone probably knew that. Aaaand, my mom sent me here this summer because I 'overdose on makeup'. Whatever that means."

The last sentence was said as the teen simultaneously pulled out a bag of makeup from her purse and started caking powder and other substances on her face. "I don't see a problem with me wearing makeup. It's not like I'm a child anymore. Even so, makeup doesn't have any negative side affects. Only beauty."

Iruka nodded. "Okay and how much do you spend on this makeup? Let's say, monthly?"

Sakura looked off into the distance, contemplating to herself the answer to Iruka's question while Ino applied shimmery lip gloss to her friends puckered mouth.

When the blonde finished, Sakura continued. "I'd say about $800 a month. Give or take how fast I run out, or if there are any sales. Not bad right? So in reality, I have no idea what I'm doing here." Shrugging, the girl crossed her arms in front of her and smiled at Iruka.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and snitched another one of Chouji's chips, thinking that lunch had better be next 'cause he was starting to get hungry. Even if only three people had gone so far, Shikamaru wondered if any of the teens really had any serious problems. Naruto may be outrageously energetic, but that's not abnormal. Lee's youth stuff was slightly abnormal, but not by much. And Sakura's issue wasn't really an issue, more so a self-confidence problem.

Iruka nodded at Sakura, making a mental note to limit the amount of make up the teen was going to be allowed to buy and use. Scribbling this note on a blank piece of paper, he opened his mouth to announce who was going next when yet again, he was beaten to the punch.

Sakura pointed at the teen in the large collared coat, snapping her fingers at him to get his attention. Shikamaru believed the boy's name was Shino. "Oy. You! Over there. Yeah you, the one with the huge jacket and creepy sunglasses. Speak."

Shikamaru snorted at the pinkette's tactics and turned his head to look at the quiet teen sitting a few chairs down. He realized he really hadn't heard the teen speak once while he was there, and was interested into why not.

Shino turned his head slightly to look at Sakura, the only acknowledgment that he had heard her address him. Turning and tilting his head down slightly, the brunette stared at the table in front of him before speaking quietly. "My name is Shino Aburame, and I was sent here because I'm not very social. I also do not talk much."

Shikamaru nodded to himself in understanding. As much as he agreed with Shino, he couldn't help but doubt that being unsociable and quiet were the only reasons the other was here. But then Shino spoke again.

"I also enjoy insects. My parents believe that I need to stop studying insects and become a socialite."

Shikamaru chuckled to himself quietly, drawing a curious gaze from Chouji. Waving his friend's stare off, he returned his attention to Shino. But instead of the other speaking again, Iruka was the one to open his mouth. "Okay then. Thank you for talking to us Shino. The next person to go willbeIno!" The last part of his sentence was slurred as the man rushed to speak the name before Shino could popcorn it. Shikamaru doubted though that the teen would have said anything more; much less decide who was going next.

The blonde whose name was called squealed happily and clapped a few times before clearing her throat and opening her mouth. "Well, my name is Ino Yamanaka, and I was enrolled here because I don't like food."

Shikamaru looked to his left to witness his new found friend having small convulsions in his chair due to the sentence coming out of the blonde's mouth. Maybe his brain was chemically rejecting the thought that someone, somewhere, didn't like food.

Noticing the girl's extremely thin frame and bony arms, Shikamaru translated her comment into something along the lines of her being anorexic. Not severely though. She was probably one of the girls that refuses to eat all day, but cant's help sneaking a few snacks later. She was probably 30 to 40 pounds underweight. Not good at all, but not serious. Yet.

Iruka furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean you don't like food?"

Ino scoffed, as if the instructor had offended her by not fully understanding what she meant. "I _mean_ that I don't like eating. I am fat after all, and therefore I shouldn't eat."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. It annoyed him to no end when people who weren't fat called themselves fat. He could understand a lack of self-confidence, but it was extremely troublesome when someone who was obviously not "obese" claimed to be.

Iruka nodded his head in understanding, hoping that the young teen's anorexia wouldn't get too out of control. He would probably have to get one of the cooks or instructors to keep an eye on her to make sure she was eating more than she let in on.

Ino shrugged and smiled, happy to get her point across to the older man. "Okay, next is going to be tall, dark and handsome over in the corner." She pointed across the room at the table where Neji and Sasuke were nonchalantly sitting it. The two teens glanced at each other, each one certain that the one being referred to as "tall, dark, and handsome" was themselves.

Sasuke opened his mouth to introduce himself, when he was cut off by an irate Ino. "No. Not _you_. Him!" This time, she pointed firmly at Neji.

Shikamaru sighed when Sasuke glowered at the offensive blonde girl. Naruto took this as an invitation to start teasing Sasuke about how he must have lost his "touch" with the ladies, if they were now choosing Hyuuga over him.

Neji smirked sideways at the ego-hurt Uchiha before taking his turn. "My name is Neji Hyuuga, and my parents sent me here to keep an eye on my cousin, and because they believe me to be too serious."

And perverse, and touchy-feely, and ignorant, and smug, and egotistical, and uppity, and arrogant, and persistent, and single minded, and two-faced, and sly, and conniving, and problematic. Shikamaru kindly filled in the rest of the statement for Neji, thankfully only listing those unattractive traits in his mind rather than out loud.

Iruka looked blankly at Neji, not expecting something so quick and to the point. Kakashi on the other hand, was looking at the teen in disbelief. The kid had to have more problems than that. If Itachi's little brother supposedly had a stick up his ass, then this Hyuuga child had the Statue of Liberty's friggen' torch shoved up there. Coupled with an ego the size of Manhattan, this kid practically screamed trouble.

Neji brushed back a chunk of hair that had fallen out of his head band before pointing at the energetic brunette sitting a few seats away from Shikamaru. "You there, go."

Shikamaru glared at Neji as the other caught his gaze and half smirked, half glared at him. Then deciding to roll his eyes at their combined child-like actions, the lazy teen redirected his focus to the boy who Neji had picked. He had given up on sleeping a little while ago, so what's the point anymore.

Apparently the kid's name was Kiba Inuzuka, and his parents thought that he had an unhealthy obsession/relationship with the family's pet dogs. And the dogs at the animal shelter, and the neighbor's dogs, and the stray dogs found around the community.

Shikamaru sighed. All it sounded like was that the kid loved dogs, nothing wrong with that. It was troublesome when parents looked too far into their child's interest, just to create problems. If Kiba's parents knew any better and stopped assuming that their son was having illegal sexual activities with any available canine, they would probably see that he just like being around the animals.

The brunette pointed at Sai and told him that it was his turn. Sai looked up from the table, and blinked at Kiba before speaking up. "My name is Sai. No last name. I am here because I have a personality disorder."

Both Shikamaru and Iruka raised an eyebrow at this. Though Shikamaru chose to steal another one of Chouji's chips, whereas Iruka spoke up. "What disorder?"

Sai slowly turned his head to address the curious instructor. "I tend to lack emotions, though I am very interested in them. That is another reason why I came here, to observe other teenagers and how they naturally act. That way, I might be able to replicate it."

Iruka furrowed his eyebrows. "So you came to a camp for socially inept teens to study how normal teenagers are supposed to act?" The man ignored Naruto's cry of protest that he _was_ normal.

Sai nodded and gave a small smile, albeit a tad fake. "That is correct."

Iruka nodded and leaned back in his chair. Noticing that Kakashi hadn't said or done anything since Lee had taken his turn, Iruka looked to his left and jumped out of his seat with a cry of surprise and pointed at the empty chair next to him. Whirling around and scanning the room, Iruka looked around and tried to find his M.I.A friend. Searching the faces of the teenagers in the room resulted in no information regarding the whereabouts of the silver haired man, and Iruka sighed dejectedly and flopped back down in his seat.

Sai tilted his head and looked at the older man in confusion, trying to identify the emotions the other was showing. Finding the predicament to baffling at the moment, the teen calmly pointed at the blue haired girl sitting a few chairs down.

Shikamaru turned to look at the blushing girl, realizing that it was the same chick that Neji had gotten all defensive about. Raising an eyebrow when the girl didn't introduce herself, he noticed that she was getting slightly redder with every passing second.

Hinata Hyuuga was what Shikamaru remembered her name to be, and the teen deduced that the reason why the girl was there was because of her shyness. The teen was sitting in her chair, slowly scooching down as if she were attempting to sink into the piece of wood. She was tapping her index fingers together, and her head was bowed to where Shikamaru could see her face, but not her eyes. A vivid red blush donned her cheeks and was creeping its way down her face and neck.

Iruka cleared his throat uncertainly. "Um, did you want to go?"

Hinata squeaked loudly and seemingly passed out, her head suddenly falling towards the table, and Shikamaru winced when he heard her forehead crack against the wood. The girl's limp figure slowly slid off the chair and fell to the floor, no one quite sure what to do about the situation. Even Neji looked somewhat surprised, if not annoyed by his cousin's behavior.

Iruka looked at the limp form on the floor for a few seconds before scratching his head in confusion. Knowing that Neji was the girl's guardian cousin, Iruka glanced at the teen, receiving a small shake of the head in return. Shrugging, Iruka looked sat back down and called on the person who should have had their turn a while back. "Looks like it's your turn, Shikamaru."

Looking up at the man, Shikamaru sighed. He might as well get his introduction over and done with though, and by no means was his small speech going to be dramatic in the slightest.

Leaning back in his chair, he folded his arms over his chest and adopted an extremely bored look, letting some annoyance shine through. "My name is Shikamaru Nara. My parents decided to send me here to try and rid me of laziness, and possibly work on my social skills. I popcorn Sasuke."

Iruka's face fell when he heard Shikamaru's sentence of an explanation. Sure it filled all the requirements that he had set up, but really. He had been hoping for people to elaborate a little.

The broody, raven haired teen with an attitude glanced at Shikamaru for an instant, narrowing his eyes for a moment before leaning forward in his chair and resting his elbows on the table. Interlacing his fingers and setting his clasped hands in front of his face, Sasuke spoke up. Well, he didn't really speak _up_. It was actually quite hard to hear him. But those who could assure that he spoke with a dark, serious yet sexy tone.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I am here mainly for the fact that my older brother, Itachi Uchiha, works here." After divulging that piece of information, Sakura and Ino's faces brightened up at the notion that not only one, but two incredibly dark and sexy men were at the camp. And let's not forget Neji.

"I am also here because Itachi told me that I am anti-social, and that I need to 'get the stick out of my ass'".

"Oh don't worry," Kakashi said as the silver haired man slid back into his chair. Iruka looked over with wide eyes, silently demanding to know where the other had been. Kakashi brushed off the brunette's look with a nonchalant wave of the hand. "Iruka has a PhD in getting sticks out of teenager's asses. So never fear, Sasuke dear, you will leave here with a pleasantly stick-free, empty anal cavity."

Shikamaru couldn't believe the man just said all that with a straight face, despite all the confused and astounded looks he was getting.

Sasuke's eye twitched and he 'hn'-ed, scowling at empty air as he vaguely, yet angrily, waved his hand at one of the tables across the circle. Seeing as how he was the only person seated at the table, Gaara took it as an opportunity to speak.

"My name is Gaara Sabaku. I am here because I like to kill things."

Iruka's eyes widened, his left one twitching as he tilted his head to look incredulously at the teenager. "I-is that the only reason why-"

"I like killing things _a lot_."

Jerking his head back, Iruka looked as though he was trying to tear his gaze away from the red-head but somehow wasn't able to. Shikamaru found that suddenly things made sense, referring to the offer the teen had made him the previous night. Maybe before the week was over, he would have to take Gaara up on his offer of exterminating Neji.

Gaara, deciding that his turn was over, turned his head slowly and increased his glare in Chouji's direction. Shikamaru figured that glaring was the teen's main way of communicating, and decided to make it a goal of his to decipher the odd language during his time here.

Chouji flinched when the red-head's gaze was directed at him. He dryly swallowed the chip in his mouth and ran his sleeve over his face, catching any stray chip crumbs. He smiled and waved slightly to everyone before introducing himself. "My name is Chouji Akimichi, and I am here because my family thinks I eat too much, and I believe I lack self confidence."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes when he heard Ino's gasp of disbelief when she heard that Chouji likes to eat a lot. Iruka nodded in understanding. "Why do you think you lack self-confidence?"

Chouji shrugged and reached into his coat pocket, pulling out another bag of chips and opening them up. "I don't like it when people diss on me because of my size, and I get really offended. I suppose ive ended up letting it affect me more than I would have liked in the end." The teen took a bite out of one of the salty chips and chewed thoughtfully.

Iruka nodded in understanding and pointed at TenTen. "Alright, you are the last person."

The bun-haired girl nodded and grinned in a very friendly manner, offering up a slight wave. "I'm TenTen Temura. I am here because I enjoy learning about and dealing with weapons. Lethal, non-lethal, metal, plastic or poison, it doesn't matter," she shrugged, her face brightening as she imagined all of what she just talked about. Her face took on a slight frown though when she continued talking.

"My parents, as you can probably imagine, don't like me associating myself with things of that manner. I guess they don't understand my fascination with weaponry."

Among the rest of the group of teenagers, she got a few interested looks, a few worried looks, and definitely some indifferent ones as well. To Shikamaru, it seemed as though the most commonly occurring reason why these teenagers where here was because of parents not understanding their children. Maybe there should be a summer camp for overprotective parents that misunderstand their kids.

Iruka nodded, glad that he only had a few kids with somewhat serious problems. Standing up, Shikamaru along with everyone else did the same and stretched, telltale pops filling the room as people twisted and cracked their backs.

"Okay, so that was really good for our very first session. Again, I'm sorry about the inconvenience at the beginning. Next up you all have a half an hour of free time, and then an hour of lunch. Lunch is over at 1:30, and your one hour classes start at 3:00. Ive posted a list on the door leading out of this building that will tell you what class you have later on in the evening."

Instead of talking to the group of teens, Kakashi lazily waved to everyone before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small, orange book.

Shikamaru turned to Chouji and offered up a small smile. "I'm thinking of taking a nap. What about you?"

The other boy shrugged. "I dunno. Watch TV? Go on the computer?"

Shikamaru nodded and started walking towards the door, falling in line behind the mass of bodies filing out of the building. "Why don't you come to my room? I'll sleep, you can use my computer, and Naruto won't be there. Less troublesome."

Chouji shrugged and smiled at the other boy. "Sure, sounds like a plan."

As they passed through the glass double doors, they both made sure to catch a glimpse at the taped up paper. Shikamaru sighed when he saw that he had swimming, and Chouji smiled faintly when he saw that he would be going on a nature walk.

When the two of them finally reached Shikamaru's room, the lazy teen collapsed on his bed while Chouji wandered over to the computer and sat down in the swivel chair. Much to both of their delight, Naruto indeed never showed up to the room.

The last thing Shikamaru thought about before he drifted off into a quiet dreamless sleep was that avoiding Neji was going to be a lot harder now.

Why had he kissed back?

---

A/N: Hello ^_^ Sorry for the lack of update for so long. This has been written and collecting dust on my computer for about a month or so, I just haven't had the opportunity to post it until now. That's about all I have to say about this chapter, I guess. Other than that, enjoy please! Reviews would be amazing, since I always like to hear what people think of my writing. Peace :)

LMS


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Or anything. I don't own anything.

Warning: Stalker-ism. More random. More funny (?). More yaoi.

Shikamaru sighed as he looked in distaste at the pair of dark blue swimming drunks he held in his hands. Sighing, he placed the folded piece of swimwear on the knee-height bench beside him and casually slipped his shirt over his head.

He had rather enjoyed his and Chouji's down time earlier that day. He hoped to make it a regular occurrence, as it was definitely not troublesome.

Lunch though, had been an entirely different story. Even though lunch technically started at 12:30, the two of them arrived closer to one, enabling them to move through the buffet line rather quickly. As he thought, Shikamaru had felt Neji's eyes on him almost the whole time since he first stepped into the building.

Getting frustrated by the other's actions and behavior, Shikamaru and Chouji ended up eating outside under a distant tree to avoid the persistent brunette that kept following them.

Other than that, Shikamaru supposed that lunch was nice. He was really growing fond of the other boy. It had been awhile since he had a real friend. Yeah, Takashi was cool and all, but he wasn't like Chouji. Chouji didn't mind lying down in the grass and watching clouds, talking about life. Takashi would rather play video games, or read porn.

Neatly folding up his shirt, Shikamaru placed it on the bench and toed off his shoes. Scooting them under the bench, he unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans and quickly tugged those off as well. Folding them and putting his shirt on top of them, he continued to stack his clothes. He reached down really quick and pulled off his socks, and again, folded them and put them on the pile. Last but not least, he slipped out of his plain boxers and quickly got into the even more plain swimming trunks.

Double checking that his clothes were neat and not all over the place, Shikamaru sighed and slowly walked towards the door at the end of the locker room, noticing that the other boys who had swimming as well already left.

Shikamaru hadn't been too excited to see that he had swimming. Maybe he could claim to be narcoleptic and get out of it that way. At least it wasn't where everyone had the same hour class. There were only six other people who had swimming: Hinata, Sakura, Gaara, Shino, Naruto, and Sasuke. He wasn't too happy about the people, but at least he didn't have it with Neji.

Opening the door, Shikamaru was blasted with a wave of hot, steamy air that smelled strongly of chlorine. Inhaling deeply to get used to the potent smell, Shikamaru frowned and stepped into the humid room, hearing the door click shut behind him.

Everyone except for the two girls was already out and standing along the edge of the pool, probably waiting for whomever was supposed to be teaching the class. Walking over to stand next to Shino, Shikamaru stuck his hands in the pockets of his swim trunks. Why they put pockets in swimming shorts were beyond him, but he wasn't complaining.

Hearing a door slam open, followed by sounds of giggling, Shikamaru turned his head to look over and see Sakura prancing out of the doorway followed by an extremely red and embarrassed looking Hinata. Sakura was flaunting herself in a skimpy hot pink bikini, and Hinata was in a simple black one piece.

The two girls walked over to stand next to Shikamaru and Sakura turned to address the lazy teen. "So, what now? Can we get in?"

Shikamaru shrugged, not really sure of the answer himself. "I'm pretty sure if we could, we would be in already. This is troublesome."

Shikamaru could hear Naruto provoking Sasuke, yelling something about the Uchiha probably looking like a drowned rat when he got in the pool. Gaara was standing a few feet away from the pool, glaring at the slightly rippling water with immense distaste. Shino was simply standing at the edge of the pool, looking at the water with a blank look on his face. Shikamaru noted with some amusement that the teenager was still wearing his sunglasses.

Sakura looked at him like he was being an asshole after he answered her, and humphed before turning back to an extremely red Hinata to complain.

A few seconds later, one of the doors next to the boy's locker room swung open, slamming into the wall with a loud 'bang'. The sound echoed painfully around the room, and Shikamaru flinched somewhat along with the other teens.

Through the door walked two adults, one a tall male, and the other a slightly less tall, but very slender female. The man was in a pair of blue swimming trunks, and Shikamaru noted somewhat distastefully that he was also very buff. Naruto also noticed this and decided to point it out with a rude 'holy shit that guy is ripped.' He had long, spiky white hair, and peculiar red lines running down the length of his cheeks. Despite having a friendly air about him, Shikamaru raised an eyebrow when he saw an egotistical and slightly lecherous grin on the man's face.

The woman was not quite as tall as the man she was walking beside, but still rather tall for her age and gender. She was wearing a dark red bikini, though not as skimpy and revealing as Sakura's. She was very fit and in an excellent physical condition for her age, although Shikamaru noted unenthusiastically that her boobs practically defined the saying "larger than life". She had long, sandy blond hair, tied back in two low, thin ponytails. Rather than an egotistical and perverted look on her face, she had an annoyed frown.

Shikamaru deduced that these people were probably their teachers, although he didn't quite like the looks of them. They seemed a bit too troublesome to be normal instructors.

The white haired man came to stand at the short end of the pool to face them, crossing his arms and slowly scanning the small group. The woman came to stand slightly behind him, rolling her eyes at his obvious display of needed control.

"So," the man started, "you lot are the group today?"

Shikamaru sighed, Sakura yelled 'yes', Hinata blushed, Gaara hissed, Naruto shrieked happily, Sasuke 'hn'-ed, and Shino said…nothing.

The man nodded. "Good, good. Well, my name is Jiraiya, and this lovely lady behind me is Tsunade. We are the swimming instructors, and will be unless something weird happens. So deal with it."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the loud man. He was…off in some way, and Shikamaru couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Turning a little bit, Jiraiya pointed energetically at the two girls and grinned lecherously. "Now! If you two young ladies would please take off your swimsuits so I can-", Jiraiya was cut off as Tsunade growled and immediately punched him harshly in the back of the head, causing the man to fly into the pool. Everyone, including Shino and Gaara, flinched when the hard smack of flesh on water resonated throughout the room.

The blonde haired woman frowned and crossed her arms, scowling at the frothing water that marked where Jiraiya had been punched in. "Stupid pervert. If you weren't rich and didn't provide me with alcohol, I would have left you years ago."

Shikamaru sighed. Great, an old lecher and an alcoholic. What fun. Please note the sarcasm.

The blonde woman uncrossed her arms, a clipboard occupying one hand, and walked over to stand behind the row of teenagers. Shikamaru and the rest of them turned to face her, their backs to the pool.

Tsunade turned the clipboard right side up and scanned it. "Okay. I'm going to take role. Say 'here' when I call your name."

"Hinata Hyuuga."

"H-h-here."

"Gaara Sabaku."

The red-head didn't speak, opting to glare at the blonde lady instead. Shikamaru smirked slightly when she glared back.

Naruto Uzu-shit."

Naruto gave an indignant squawk of protest at his mispronounced name as Tsunade whipped a cell phone out of nowhere, jabbing out a number and holding the phone up to her ear.

Shikamaru could hear it ring faintly before someone picked up, though he wasn't able to hear what the person on the other line was saying. He could see that Tsunade looked really agitated and slightly pissed off.

"Oi, Iruka. _Why_ didn't you tell me that Naruto was coming to camp this year?"

Oh yeah, she was angry. Shikamaru noted out of the corner of his eye that Jiraiya was now surfacing from the pool, only to try and hoist himself onto the slippery tile and fall back into the warm water.

"…"

"I have a right to know!"

"…"

"You do realize I'm not letting him get into the pool?"

Another indignant squawk from Naruto could be hear along with a smug chuckle from Sasuke.

"….."

"Last time I let him in my pool, he broke it! I had to use my alcohol money to fix the damn thing." 

"…"

"I don't _care_ if he was four at the time. That was MY money!"

"…"

"Screw Jiraiya."

"…"

"Screw you! If he breaks the pool this time, it's coming out of _your_ bloody paycheck!"

And with that she hung up angrily and chucked the small piece of technology behind her at the metal bleachers. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Tsunade looked at the clip board again. "Okay Naruto, I swear to god if you break my pool…I'm cutting ramen out of your diet."

Shikamaru glanced over at the blonde teen to see that while normally tan, Naruto was extremely pale. His mouth was hanging open and he was staring in shock at the air in front of him, oblivious to the hand that Sasuke was waving in front of his face.

Seemingly content with her threat, Tsunade continued down the list. "Sakura Haruno."

Sakura giggled and waved at the woman. "Present."

"Shino Aburame."

"…I am here."

"Shikamaru Nara."

Shikamaru sighed and raised his hand. "This is troublesome."

Tsunade smirked. "Well, trust me; it's going to get a lot worse."

Shikamaru sighed again, deeper this time. "I know."

"Last and questionably least, Sasuke Uchiha."

Sasuke scowled and raised a hand. "Here."

"Good. Good. All seven of you are present. Now where is Jiraiya? Has he surfaced yet?"

As soon as she finished her sentence, Jiraiya floated back to the surface of the water, his wet hair sticking thickly to his face and he angrily pulled himself out of the water.

Tsunade smirked. "Ah, there you are. Now we can get started with class."

The soaked man sulkily walked over to stand next to the gloating Tsunade, creating small puddle of water with each step he took. "Yeah, yeah. You didn't have to punch me you know. It was only harmless fun."

Crossing her arms again, Tsunade glared at Jiraiya. "Don't even start, pervert. In any case," she addressed the small group of teens again, "since there are an odd number of you all, I'll take three people, and Jiraiya will take four. We will teach you the basics of swimming for about half an hour, and then the rest of the time is free swim."

Shikamaru sighed. This was going to be interesting.

--

After the instruction period, Shikamaru decided that it was extremely nice to just float around aimlessly in the pool.

Rather than 30 minutes of being taught how to swim, Jiraiya and Tsunade decided to cut it a bit short. Maybe it was because they were bored. Maybe it was because everyone already knew how to swim. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because Gaara refused to get into the water and had pulled a knife on Jiraiya when the man valiantly tried to pick the red-head up and throw him in. Or maybe it was because Hinata passed out so many times due to embarrassment that Tsunade was forced to swim with Hinata piggy-back style. Or maybe it was because Shino decided to go outside and knock down a bee-hive and bring it _inside_ to demonstrate how much bees hate the water.

No, Shikamaru figured it was because everyone already knew how to swim.

Gaara was sitting angrily on the highest row of the metal bleachers, as far away from the water as he could get. Every once in awhile, when Jiraiya ventured too close to the teen, he looked over his shoulder and hissed.

Shino was mimicking Shikamaru, although sometimes he would swim a few yards and then proceed floating peacefully.

Sakura was now helping Hinata learn how to swim, seeing as how Tsunade had given up on the group and was now talking on her battered cell phone. Shikamaru heard the words "his tab" and "absinth" a few times, and decided not to say anything.

Naruto was having a one sided dunk fight with Sasuke. One-sided meaning that Naruto would try and sneak up on the other teen and dunk him, only to have Sasuke whip around and grab Naruto's head and hold it underwater until Tsunade yelled at him and chucked something at his head. Usually a shoe.

Shikamaru lazily steered himself to the other end of the pool to get a glance at the time. Sighing when he saw that they only had a few more minutes until they needed to get out and dry off, Shikamaru floated over to the side of the pool and slowly hoisted himself out of it. He might as well start getting dried off. Usually what happens is people wait until the last minute and then they have to rush around because they thought they had more time. Well, Shikamaru didn't like feeling rushed.

Walking wetly over to the door that he had come out of from the locker room, Shikamaru pulled open the heavy door and walked slowly into the cold room. He headed over to where he had folded up all of his clothing and grabbed his towel, throwing the towel over his head and starting to rub his hair dry.

Once he had gotten his hair dry enough to the point that it was dripping all over himself, Shikamaru yanked off his swim shorts and quickly toweled off the water and slipped on his boxers. He ringed out his trunks and stuffed them neatly into his temporary locker.

Drying off his legs, torso and arms, the lazy teen pulled on the rest of his clothing and then folded his towel and put that in his locker on top of his trunks. Shikamaru finished getting dressed by the time the other four boys were trudging into the room.

Shikamaru noted that Gaara moved around the small pools of water on the floor. Not hopping around them, he made it look like he was used to swaying around while he was walking. It looked kinda of creepy actually, like he was dancing in some way.

Shrugging, Shikamaru made his way over to the row of giant hair-driers on the wall across from the lockers. Hitting the button, he stood under the fast flow of hot air until he felt like his hair was dry enough before stepping out from underneath the machine. Walking back to his locker, Shikamaru picked up his hair band from the bench and tied up his hair.

Scanning the room, he noticed that Shino had managed to get dressed before him, even though the other teen had come in later than he had. Odd. Naruto was trying to use his wet towel to whip Sasuke, but the dark haired teen just grabbed the end of it, twisted it around Naruto's face and yanked it so that the blonde's head cracked into the top of the lockers.

Shikamaru flinched and Sasuke chuckled, although the blonde seemed unharmed. Gaara was in the process of slipping on a shirt over his head and Shikamaru noted with some concern that the teen was actually really skinny and pale. Some scars littered his torso and upper arms, and Shikamaru suspected that maybe the teen had been abused as a child.

Deciding not to meddle in other's affairs, especially with someone who liked to "kill things a lot", Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out the door at the other end of the locker room, making his way back to the dorm room.

Shikamaru pulled open the door to the dorms, holding it open for Shino who had apparently followed him out. Heading over to the stairs that would lead up to his room, he and Shino were stopped by Iruka who was sitting at his desk near the back of the lobby area.

"Ah, I guess it _is_ four already. Time goes by really fast, eh?" The brown haired man chuckled and shuffled some loose papers around the top of his desk, trying to make some sense of the mess. "Well, why don't you two take a seat and wait for the others to get back here." He motioned towards some large recliner chairs to his left by a small un-lit fireplace.

Shikamaru sighed and walked over with Shino to take a seat. He slouched down on one of the chairs while Shino decided to stand to the side of the fire place.

They didn't have to wait long before a steady stream of teenagers made their way into the building, all of them being stopped by Iruka as they had earlier.

First Naruto and Sasuke tromped in, the two of them being directed over to the lounge area where Shikamaru and Shino were residing. Naruto flopped into a larger maroon recliner whereas Sasuke "hn"-ed and sat down on the brick area in front of the fire place. Gaara followed them in by a few seconds and immediately walked over to where everyone else was and leaned against a wall. Guess he figured it out.

A few minutes of semi-awkward silence later, Lee and Neji came walking through the door. This time Iruka was busy typing something on his computer so he just silently gestured with his head for them to go sit with everyone else. Lee bounced over and sat next to Sasuke on the hearth, poling the teen and asking him how his class was. Neji made his way over to the chair next to Shikamaru's and gracefully seated himself in the recliner, looking at Shikamaru out of the corner of his eye and smirking.

Kiba, Sai, and Chouji made up the last of the group, wandering in a few minutes later and being told by Iruka to take a seat for a few. Kiba walked over and sat on the arm rest of Naruto's chair, the two of them talking excitedly about their classes. Sai sat on the floor next to Naruto's chair and looked almost jealously at the brunette who was conversing with Naruto. Chouji smiled when he and Shikamaru's gazes met and the teen made his way over to the large chair, waving slightly at his friend.

Shikamaru saw that Neji was trying to catch his attention, so he turned and listened half-heartedly to Chouji telling him about the nature walk he went on. Though he was listening avidly when Chouji started telling him about the herd of deer they found. Shikamaru had always liked deer.

As soon as the chatter in the room was reaching extraordinarily high levels for a group of ten teenage boys, Iruka got up from his desk and made his way over to the group.

"Okay, can we please settle down? Hello? Can you all be quiet please?" The man's quiet and feeble attempts to get the group to shut up fell on deaf ears. So he changed his tactics.

Walking briskly back to his desk, Iruka scooped up a pile of small paperweights and began lobbing them at the teenagers. One of them nailed Naruto in the back of the head. One flew into the fireplace, shattering instantly on the brick wall. One was caught deftly by Shino, another one landed with a muted 'thump' on Shikamaru's chair next to his thigh. Another one smacked into the wall mere centimeters away from Gaara's head, earning Iruka a very murderous glare from the teen as the red-head leaned down and pocketed the paper weight. One of them smacked into Kiba's back, and Lee leaped into the air and caught the one being aimed at Chouji.

Effectively gaining everyone's attention, the brown haired instructor cleared his throat and addressed the group again. "Okay, now that hour classes are over, everyone has a two hour free period before dinner. You are free to go outside, go to the arcade, or hang out in your dorm rooms. Although I might not recommend going outside right now, it's supposed to rain soon. Though I _do_ think that everyone should write a quick letter home to tell your family about your first real day at camp."

Smiling to himself, the man turned around and walked back to his desk, sitting down and continuing with whatever he had been working on prior.

Shikamaru decides that maybe a quick letter home sounded nice. Of course, all he was going to do was complain, but that's okay. Iuka didn't specify what _type_ of letter it had to be. Voicing his intents to Chouji, his friend asked him if he wouldn't mind meeting up with him in the arcade when he was finished.

Deciding that going to the game room didn't sound _too_ troublesome, Shikamaru got up and stretched before walking up the stairs to the dorm hall. Others went their separate ways, some leaving the building and a few people making their way up the stairs like Shikamaru had.

Walking into his room and shutting the door behind him, Shikamaru made his way over to the desk housing his temporary computer and opened a few drawers. Finding miscellaneous things such as pens, pencils and other office like materials, he happened across some basic postage items. Pulling out an envelope, a small sheet of stamps, and a blank piece of lined paper, Shikamaru quickly wrote out a letter to his mom.

_Dear Mom,_

_It's Shikamaru. Why did you send me to this camp? This is so troublesome._

_Love,_

_Shikamaru Nara_

Yup, that was all that he was going to write. Folding up the paper, he carefully inserted it into the white envelope. Thankfully it wasn't the kind where you had to lick it to make it stick, it was one of those kinds where you peel off the piece of paper and fold it. He scrawled his address on the front of the envelope and walked downstairs.

Approaching Iruka's desk, he waited until the man was finished reading over some papers before addressing him. "Where do I put my letter home?"

Iruka looked at him blankly for a few seconds before he smiled and pointed to a small basket on the corner of his desk. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to actually write home. Post comes later today, so I'll take it out for you."

Shikamaru nodded and turned around, walking out the front door and heading towards the main building.

--

As soon as Shikamaru left the room, Neji quietly walked downstairs to deposit his own letter home. Walking up to Iruka's desk, he quietly waited for the man to finish the phone call he was making. Mindlessly looking over the contents of the man's desk, he saw a medium sized wire basket on the corner of his desk with a couple of un-mailed letters in it. Neji motioned towards the basket with his letter and got a quick nod from Iruka.

Placing his letter in the bin, the teen noticed that the latest letter to be added to the pile was addressed to a Mrs. Nara. Remembering that Shikamaru's last name was Nara, Neji picked up the letter and scanned the address. Smirking to himself, the teen quickly memorized the address and placed the letter carefully back in the basket.

Turning and walking back upstairs, Neji walked back into his room and quickly made his way to his desk. He had another letter to write.

--

Shikamaru walked into the main building and took a left when he saw a door with the sign "Entertainment Room" on it. Opening the door, Shikamaru was greeted with a sight most teenagers would love. An extremely large room housing multiple gaming areas, from games with controllers to the kind of games one would find at an Arcade, like DDR. There were also four large flat screen TV in different places of the room, two or three couches surrounding each one. There were also two foosball tables, a pool table and a refrigerator that Shikamaru assumed was stocked with snacks.

Shikamaru noticed that probably every teenager in the camp was lounging about in the room. Naruto and Sasuke were battling it out on the DDR machine, the blonde screaming insults at the Uchiha as the other teen whooped Naruto's ass. Sakura and Ino were watching a fashion show on one of the multiple TV's, debating on what type of clothing would look best on a blushing Hinata, the girl sitting next to them uncomfortably on the couch.

Lee was cheering Naruto on at DDR, and Kiba was standing next to the spandex-clad teen with a bowl of popcorn and was laughing at the blond. Gaara had seated himself at one of the large arcade games and was shooting things on the screen with a plastic gun. Shikamaru noted that he was even shooting his own comrades' on the game, but he didn't suppose it mattered seeing as how the homicidal teen was winning regardless. Shino was sitting at an Xbox, playing some sort of Japanese looking game where he was a little kid running around and trying to catch bugs. Sai was sitting next to him, listening avidly as the usually quiet teen murmured random facts about whatever insect he had just caught. TenTen was standing next to Gaara, cheering and hollering at the teen as he successfully killed everyone in his sight on the screen.

After a few moments of observation, Shikamaru's line of vision landed on his chip-eating friend sitting on a couch and watching a gourmet cooking show on another one of the giant TVs.

Walking over to the couch, Shikamaru sat down next to his friend, noticing that Chouji had grabbed a family sized bag of chips from on of the cupboards next to the fridge.

"Do you mind if I go ahead and sleep?"

Chouji smiled slightly and nodded, not taking his eyes off the screen in front of him.

Shikamaru chuckled and moved to the couch to the left of the one he had been sitting on, stretching out on the plush piece of furniture and rolling on his side. "Definitely not troublesome," he said to his friend and he quickly drifted off to sleep, missing the smile playing across Chouji's lips. Now, back to the show.

--

Neji smirked to himself and quickly addressed the envelope to the address he had memorized from Shikamaru's letter home. He hadn't been able to believe his luck when he realized whose letter it was. Maybe getting in contact with the boy's mother would be beneficial.

_Dear Mrs. Nara,_

_My name is Neji Hyuuga, and I am one of the teenagers attending the camp that your son, Shikamaru, is. I have found myself quite infatuated with your son, but he is very stubborn when it comes to interacting with me, deeming me "troublesome". Would you be able to help me with my situation?_

_Sincerely,_

_Neji Hyuuga_

Walking out of his room and locking the door behind him, Neji made his way downstairs, making sure to drop the letter into the wire basket. Making his way out of the building, he walked to the main building and went to the Entertainment Room. As he thought, everyone was lounging and doing something inside the game filled room. His eyes were immediately drawn to a sleeping Shikamaru and he made his way over to the large couch.

Seeing as how the slumbering teen took up the majority of the couch space, Neji took a seat next to Chouji. Neji let his attention be absorbed by the cooking show for a few minutes before the large boy next to him unexpectedly spoke up.

"Y'know, he really doesn't like you."

Neji sighed, shifting his attention from the screen to the brown haired boy. "Yeah, I can tell."

Chouji frowned slightly and tapped his bottom lip thoughtfully with a chip. "Then why do you continue to pursue him? It's been what…not even two days since we got here? That was mighty fast if you ask me."

The long haired brunette tilted his head back and closed his eyes. "I don't see why I have to explain myself to you, or anyone for that matter."

Chouji shrugged. "You don't." The teen munched on the chip in his hand, still watching the cooking show on the TV.

A few minutes later, Neji opened his eyes half way and looked blankly at the wall above the TV. "Maybe I don't know myself."

Chouji tore his eyes away from the TV to give Neji all of his attention. "What do you mean." It wasn't a question.

Neji sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Like you said, it's only been two days. Barely that. Why I am so intent on winning Shikamaru's favor is beyond me."

Chouji nodded. "My advice? You need to back off."

Neji's eyes shot to the other teen, but Chouji had already shifted his focus back to the show. Neji knew that the conversation was over and stood up, stretching his back before turning to look at the still sleeping Shikamaru.

Chouji was right. It wasn't even the end of the second day here, and Neji was chasing after Shikamaru like he had wanted the man for months. Neji had to admit though, that he was making quite the brilliant fool of himself. Usually if he chose to pursue someone, it wasn't so obvious, and it certainly wasn't after two days.

Neji pegged it to fate. That _is_ what he always did, but this time more than usual. Yes, Neji thought to himself. The only reason why I am so drawn to the boy is because fate wants it to happen. The reason why I didn't act like this around others is because it wasn't meant to be.

Happy with his temporary fix of the situation, Neji spared one last glance at the slumbering figure before briskly walking out the room and back to the dorms.

--

Shikamaru blearily opened his eyes when he felt a hand firmly shaking his shoulder. Rolling over sluggishly, Shikamaru linked the sleep out of his eyes and focused on the face of his friend.

Stretching his arms above his head, Shikamaru lazily shifted to where he was sitting on the couch rather than laying on it. "Hey Chouji. What time is it?"

Chouji looked around the room until he spotted a digital clock mounted on the wall. "It's 5:53. It's practically dinner and everyone is heading out, I thought I might as well wake you up."

Shikamaru chuckled quietly. "How troublesome, I was enjoying my sleep."

Chouji smiled apologetically and shrugged. "C'mon Shika, I don't want to miss dinner."

Standing up, Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out of the room behind his friend, the two of them following a couple of stragglers to the cafeteria. As soon as the set foot into the room, they were hit by a wave of spice heavy air. Apparently, they were having tacos tonight.

Chouji and Shikamaru made their way to the end of the line and grabbed a plate. Chouji immediately began setting up at least four tacos for himself, where as Shikamaru grabbed a tortilla and began to fix himself a burrito. Once the two of them had piled on their toppings, they made their way to the table that Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba and Sai were at.

After a few minutes of everyone eating messily and talking with mouths full of food, they were joined by Lee, Shino, TenTen and Gaara. Lee and Naruto immediately set upon having an eating competition to see who could shove down four burritos the quickest.

Dinner was pretty uneventful actually. Shikamaru noticed that Naruto and Sasuke weren't partaking in their usual bickering, and he hadn't caught sight of Neji at all during the forty or so minutes he was in the cafeteria.

He and Chouji stood up and headed back towards the buffet line, although Shikamaru put his plate on the dirty dish stack and told Chouji that he was going to go take a nap in his room. After his friend acknowledged him, Shikamaru slowly walked back to the dorm room, noticing absentmindedly that Iruka wasn't at his desk like he normally was.

Shikamaru turned to head up the stairs when he was barreled into by a red-head. Looking up, Shikamaru noticed that he hadn't run into one of the teenagers, so he assumed that the man was an instructor.

The other was about six foot five, definitely on the tall side. He had shaggy red-blonde hair that went down to about his shoulder blades and it was secured back in a scruffy ponytail in the middle of the back of his head. The man had strange reddish eyes, but Shikamaru chalked that up to probably being contacts. He looked to be early twenties age-wise, and was wearing baggy beige cargo pants, converse, and a skin tight black tee-shirt.

The man chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry man, I wasn't looking where I was going."

Shikamaru shrugged. There wasn't much he could say, seeing as how it _was_ the other's fault. "Troublesome."

The red-head extended a tan arm and grinned. Shikamaru noted that the man's teeth were really white, and the canines where a bit pointier than a normal persons.

Shikamaru took the other's hand and shook it.

The man grinned wider and chuckled. "The name's Kyuubi. I'm an instructor here, but I don't think ive seen you around."

Shikamaru nodded his confirmation. "Shikamaru Nara. No, I haven't seen you."

Kyuubi shrugged. "Well, in any case, I got pegged with Nutritional Wellness this year along with a few other classes here and there, so you'll probably have me soon."

Shikamaru looked at him blankly. He sure was talkative.

Kyuubi glanced at the black watch on his wrist and cringed when he read the time. "Crap, I gotta get going Shika, but I'll catch up with you later." And with that, the man sprinted out the door, taking a sharp left out of Shikamaru's vision.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome indeed." He started to walk up the stairs again, this time keeping a firm gaze at the top of the stairs in case another person decided to come charging down.

Reaching the top unharmed, Shikamaru entered his room and immediately headed for the bed. Climbing onto the comfortable mattress, he rolled onto his stomach and within minutes was asleep. That day had been extremely troublesome after all.

--

About an hour later, Shikamaru was woken up unceremoniously by Naruto charging into their room. Groaning, Shikamaru rolled over and glared half heartedly at the loud blonde who chuckled sheepishly back at him. "Sorry Shika, I didn't mean to be so loud."

Sighing, Shikamaru hefted himself up into a sitting position and kneaded his forehead with the palms of his hands. Scooting off the edge of the bed, the teen ignored Naruto's chatter and walked out the door, intent on going to the bathroom.

Mere feet away from the door leading to the bathroom shared by that floor, Shikamaru heard a door ahead of him open quickly. Looking up, Shikamaru's weary eyes were met with the sight of Neji walking towards him, looking like a man on a mission.

"Shikamaru."

The addressed teen sighed, again bringing up his hands to rub at his temples. "Yes, Neji?"

Neji tilted his head slightly and examined the other teen. He didn't look right. "Are you well?"

Shikamaru sighed again and grabbed hold of Neji's wrist before turning around and slowly walking back towards his room, dragging Neji behind him.

Opening the door, Shikamaru entered his room with Neji in tow and promptly asked Naruto to "leave or die". The blonde squeaked but left anyways, and Shikamaru were soon presented with an empty room. Neji's gaze traveled across the living space and noted how Shikamaru's "half" of the room was significantly cleaner than Naruto's.

The lazy teen moved slowly back over to his bed and leaned tiredly against the piece of furniture. "Look, Neji."

The long-haired teen returned his focus to Shikamaru. "Yes?"

"I would really appreciate it if you would stop being so troublesome."

Neji frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Shikamaru sighed again for the fourth time in the same amount of minutes. "I would like it if you would please stop hitting on me. That includes following me, trying to get my attention all the time, mean mugging anyone who looks at me, and definitely no more surprise attacks."

Neji looked at him blankly as he continued to talk.

"It is making me feel extremely uncomfortable, and I think that you should respect my choice in the fact that I have told you repeatedly that I would like you to back off. Will you please do that?"

Neji stared at him for a few seconds before closing his eyes and slowly nodding his head. "I will do as you wish and 'back off'. I did not mean to make you feel uncomfortable in any way, and I apologize. Sleep well, Shikamaru."

With that, Neji turned on his heel and walked out the door. Shikamaru yawned and smiled to himself. He had finally taken care of his Neji problem. Now for some sleep.

Crawling back up onto his still-warm bed, Shikamaru curled up under the covers, readying himself for another dreamless sleep. The only thought haunting him was how easily Neji complied with what he wanted.

A/N: I have graced you all by posting two chapters at one time! Not really… chapters three and four had originally been one chapter, but I decided they were too long and split them. Regardless, I hope you all like it. Reviews would be amazing, since feedback is really helpful. And motivating :) In any case, enjoy!

LMS


End file.
